Alex and the Cherubs
by the-means-of-procrastinating
Summary: MI6 owe MI5 a favour, MI5 have a mission which requires protection. The result; Alex Rider shows up all the Cherubs. I mean Alex Rider is leant out to work with the Cherubs. In this Alex was recruited at 11 like the Cherubs and is now 14. Add into that possible additional training at Brecon Beacons for the cherubs before the mission couple in K unit - all hell will break loose!
1. MI6's top agent

**My first ever crossover, don't be too harsh if the characters are out as I haven't read cherub in years and don't have to books...**

**Anyway! ENJOY!**

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Lauren Adams was fuming. James, her brother, had just been in her room moaning about how he hadn't had a mission in weeks and he was soon due to leave cherub, he had just spent three hours at the shooting range with Kerry who was also grumpy about the lack of missions. She had been in a good mood until James had turned up,

"Hey." Rat entered without knocking and dropped on the bed, it took him a few minutes to notice the glare aimed her way, "Ah, who pissed you off?"

"James." She growled, Rat patted the spot next to him and Lauren grudgingly stood then collapsed next to him, Rat slipped his arm around his girlfriend and gradually she calmed,

"You done the essay for History yet?" Rat asked to take her mind off things,

"Nope, you done the Russian homework?" Lauren asked in response,

"Nope, be realistic, that bloody language still does my head in." Rat grumbled,

"Hey, Zara wants to see us!" Kerry exclaimed bounding into the room with a sheepish James in the doorway looking awkward.

"Lets go." Rat pulled Lauren up and they all rushed to the mission control centre, they were soon at Zara's office and Kerry knocked,

"Enter." She called and they all slipped in taking seats in the provided ones,

"Zara? Who else is coming?" Lauren asked noting the two spare seats.

"MI6 operatives, all we have for them is names. Alex Rider and Ben Daniels, nothing else." She replied looking at the files,

"Have you asked John Jones?" Lauren suggested,

"No, that actually hadn't occurred to me." Zara sounded surprised, "They should be here soon anyway and everything will be explained."

"Why do we need MI6 anyway?" Kerry asked,

"The ethics committee only passed this under the condition we had MI6 protection, they sent their two top agents." Zara was worried at the ease at which these agents were given out, like library books. The following silence was broken by a knock at the door, it opened to reveal John Jones,

"Just got a call from the receptionist, apparently Daniels is running late, traffic and all."

"John, we're getting two MI6 agents, we were wondering if you knew of them?" Lauren asked politely,

"Who are they?" John asked perching in the remaining seat,

"Ben Daniels, the one you said was in traffic." Zara replied,

"Ah yes, Ben, he is ex SAS, his partner is the top in MI6 he himself is second, apparently his track record is exemplary. The other?" John asked,

"Alex Rider?" The response was shocking, the man froze, then a grin spread,

"Really, can I meet him? I would love to know if the rumours are true," John asked,

"Like? What do you know about him?" Kerry asked,

"The rumours, I only had clearance to hear half the rumours, say he is extraordinary. Trained with the SAS, perfect track record, 100% success rate, but mainly that he is young. We assume that that applies to young for someone to be in top agent position, he has held it for... two years now, definitely someone I would like to meet. I am not supposed to know about him, I didn't even know for sure he existed until this conversation, only deals with the heads, Smithers, Crawley and partners. Those he are partnered with leave grumpy and come back blown away, of course lips sealed by the OSA, but rumours leak." The ex MI6 man shrugged,

"From what I gather, there is more to him than reaches the eye, has worked for MI6, CIA, ASIS, DGSE, CSIS, NZSIS, Mossad, you get the picture." John stood, "I should be going,"

"That implies he speaks all those languages." Lauren pointed out,

"I haven't even heard of half of them." James muttered,

"That's because your a moronic douche James." Lauren shot back,

"Am not!" James exclaimed,

"You can't even think of a responding insult!" Lauren laughed her point sufficiently proven. The bickering continued until there was another knock at the door.

"Zara. We need to talk." Ewart called from the doorway concern etched on his forehead,

"About?" She asked heading to the door,

"This is Alex Rider." Ewart gestured to a boy she hadn't seen hidden in the shadows. He was tall, blonde hair flopping into his piercing green eyes and muscles that shouldn't be on someone that age.

"How old are you?" Zara asked speechless,

"Fourteen." Alex replied eyes twinkling with mischief. Zara could tell in a few years he would be breaking hearts.

"You are MI6's top agent." She asked still in shock,

"No ma'am, not top I believe." Alex replied a smile fighting to break free, "Shall we ma'am?" He asked,

"Call me Zara please." Ewart disappeared down the corridor and Joshua appeared from behind a potted plant. Alex crouched to his height,

"Who are you little guy?" He asked quietly,

"Joshua." He replied, Zara blinked, what had happened to her shy son?

"Hello Joshua, nice to meet you I'm Alex," He held out his hand which Joshua shook giggling, he then held out his arms in the universally recognised gesture of 'pick me up'. Alex did just that and became eye level with Zara again.

"Your son I gather." He commented, "He looks like you and Ewart." Alex elaborated,

"Hey everything OK?" Kerry asked poking her head out the door, she froze,

"Alex, this way." Zara herded a stunned Kerry into the office and Alex followed, the bickering quickly stopped, Lauren watched the boy enter, he was handsome, she had to give him that, but the way he moved was entrancing, like watching a dancer, or... Assassin. That would have been the first thought had it not been for the blonde child in his arms.

"JOSHUA! What have I told you about running off!" Ewart exclaimed bursting into the room, Alex held out the unhappy child with a laugh,

"Obviously takes after his parents." Alex smiled,

"He's a little rascal." Ewart sighed, then turned to the room as a whole, "Sorry." He left. Then the questions started,

"You're Alex Rider top MI6 agent!"

"You're a spy! I thought only MI5 had children spies!"

"Are you as good as they say you are?!"

"How old are you?"

"What can you do."

The questions went on and Alex's slight smile turned into a full blown grin.

"Stop it!" Lauren finally exclaimed,

"Thanks." Alex chuckled, "I am Alex Rider, I am not top agent, rumours are sorely over exaggerated, I am fourteen and I really doubt I am as good as you think I am." James grinned at that, he could help and tutor the boy.

"I thought only MI5 had child spies." Rat commented,

"They do, I'm the only one." His eyes darkened at this, Lauren detected a hint of bitterness but the expression and tone was gone in seconds.

"Where is Ben Daniels?" Zara asked, Alex shrugged,

"Late, as usual, not his fault he was coming from BB '6 only gave him scant notice, I was already in the area so took a different route." Alex replied,

"Do you know how far out he is?" Kerry asked,

"Nope but-" He was cut off by his phone ringing, he glanced at the caller ID, "One second." He answered the phone, "Hey Ben." The rooms occupants gaped, "No, no, Ben I swear I'm fine!" He exclaimed amused exasperation in his tone, "No I haven't been shot at. No I haven't blown anything up. Yes I am still in England. No I am not driving." Lauren was amused, the questions were asked as though they were normal everyday questions and the responses seemed like they had been asked before, maybe a family member? "You know I can't say that... Yes again, but not like the usual again..." Alex grinned broadly, "You'll find out very soon, I swear." There was a brief pause, "Where are you," There was a response and Alex seemed to be thinking something over, "In thirty two minutes traffic willing. See you soon, bye." He hung up.

"He'll be here in 32 minutes, traffic willing." Alex informed the room,

"You blow much up?" Lauren asked amused,

"Now and again, it's an old habit. Though I still stand by the fact that things near me blow up not I blow things near me up." Alex replied grinning, a light laugh ran around the room,

"You get shot at often?" Kerry asked concern tingeing her tone,

"More than I would like and less than they would." Alex replied honestly,

"They?" Rat queried,

"People I have pissed off." Alex informed them,

"Pissed many off?" James asked raising an eyebrow,

"More than I would have liked to," Again an honest answer.

"What training do you have?" Lauren asked,

"You are a nominated spokesperson?" Alex grinned at her,

"No." Lauren frowned,

"Most curious?" Alex tried,

"No,"

"Cleverest?" Alex tried, Lauren grinned,

"Well, now you're getting somewhere." Alex and Lauren high-fived when exclamations went around the room.

"Stop distracting us!" Lauren gasped, realisation dawning,

"You catch on a lot quicker than some." Alex raised an eyebrow grudgingly impressed with this one cherub.

"So what training do you have?" Kerry asked,

"This and that, what do you have?" Alex asked,

"Basic training, it lasts 100 days and is living hell." James groaned, Alex laughed slightly,

"I'm sure it is."

"So what do you have if you're so condescending of us?" James demanded,

"I'm not trying to be condescending!" Alex defended himself,

"Well you're sure acting like it." James muttered,

"James, enough." Zara snapped,

"Sorry." James was sufficiently scolded,

"Sorry ma'am. It's been a long day." Alex apologised.

"It's only three in the afternoon!" James exclaimed, Zara silenced him with a glare,

"My day started at 1 this morning GMT, yet my body clock is telling me its 10 in the evening." Alex left out the lack of sleep for the past few nights as well.

"Jet lag." Zara summarised,

"Yep, all seven hours of it." Alex confirmed. There was a knock at the door,

"Enter." Zara called only now noticing the sleep deprived stance and bags under her youngest agents eyes,

"Zara Asker?" A dark haired head poked his head around the door,

"That's me, Ben Daniels?" Zara checked,

"Yes ma'am." He looked at the room as a whole, "What have you done now Al."

"Same old, absolutely nothing to do with me." Ben ruffled Alex's hair as he saw, in return he got a glare,

"When was the last time you slept?" Ben asked worried,

"This morning, how are they all?" Alex fielded the question,

"Nice try, they're fine. When was the last time you slept for a decent length of time?" Ben tried again, Alex seemed to think on it,

"Can't remember." He replied with a shrug.

"Thought you'd say that, hows the English going?" Ben smirked at his partner,

"Doing my head in, I'm having to translate everything back into English, I've had to substitute words three times already." Alex groaned,

"I noticed the lack of accent."

"I'll be back speaking cockney by the end of the week." Alex sighed,

"Are you not English?" Lauren cut in,

"No I am, I'm from Chelsea in London but have just spent the last four months speaking nothing but Russian so at the moment I am still thinking in Russian." Alex explained,

"So you speak Russian." Lauren commented,

"No shit Sherlock." Alex smiled, Zara cleared her throat,

"Shall we get down to the mission at hand?" She asked dragging them back to the reason they were all here.

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**Please review, tell me if I should continue...**


	2. So, he speaks Russian then

**Enjoy!**

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_**CLASSIFIED**_

_MISSION BRIEFING FOR JAMES ADAMS, KERRY CHANG, LAUREN ADAMS GREG RATHBONE, UNDER THE PROTECTION OF ZARA ASKER AND MI6 OPERATIVES ALEXANDER RIDER AND BENJAMIN DANIELS._

_THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED WITH A RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TAG, ANY ATTEMPT TO REMOVE IT FROM THE MISSION PREPARATION BUILDING WILL SET OFF ALARMS._

_DO NOT COPY OR MAKE MOTES._

_THIS MISSION PASSED THE ETHICS COMMITTEE ON THE CONDITION THAT MI6 OPERATIVES ACCOMPANY THE AGENTS AND THAT THE CHERUB OPERATIVES UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWING:_

_This mission has been classified as HIGH RISK. All CHERUB operatives are reminded of their right to refuse this mission at any point and their ability to withdraw at any time. While every possible step has been taken to ensure the operatives safety on these missions they are urged to consider carefully before accepting their role._

_Two years ago a major terrorist organisation whose name has been withheld was crushed. Only a small number of the members escaped capture, it is believed they are trying to rebuild the organisation from scratch. These members are; Hannah June, William Wright and Jane Piccolo. They were low key operatives with families. _

_Hannah June:_

_Two years ago Handel moved to the UK with his son and daughter, Harry (15) and Kate (16), after their mother died in an accident. It is unknown how involved they are with their mothers operations, their father is unknown._

_William Wright and Jane Piccolo:_

_Twenty three years ago Wright and Piccolo travelled to Venice and vanished. Four years later they reappear on the map with twin children, William and Lissa (14), two years ago they moved to the UK._

_Mission Objective:_

_To befriend the children;_

_Kerry Chang: Kate June_

_James Adams: Harry June_

_Lauren Adams: Rose Wright_

_Greg Rathbone: William Wright_

_The operatives will live in the same city as them and attend the same school, Daniels and Asker will play adoptive parents and all the children are adopted, Lauren and James are still siblings. They will all keep their first names and change their last name to Williams._

The briefing went on to outline the details of the mission,

"You have an ethics committee?" Ben commented when he had finished reading it,

"Yes, don't you?" Kerry was surprised,

"No." Alex shrugged, "You also have the right to withdraw." He added,

"Don't you?" Lauren was shocked,

"Nope, lucky if I get back up." Alex muttered, Zara overheard and blinked shocked,

"Why do we need MI6 if it's just a mission to see if anything is happening?" James asked leaning back,

"I guess it's to do with the group taken down two years ago, do you know what it was?" Zara asked turning to Ben and Alex who were talking quietly, "Are you familiar with the terrorist group?"

"Too familiar." Alex chuckled darkly,

"You can say that again." Ben frowned, "Yes, we are familiar," His face twisted, "With that group, you're looking at the reason you are only dealing with three people." Five shocked faces looked at him,

"You!" Lauren exclaimed,

"What, no! Alex!" Ben exclaimed amused, "I meant him, not me!" He laughed, "I'm not that good."

"Thanks Ben." Alex muttered, "Lets all look at Alex like he's grown a third head."

"When did you grow a second?" Ben cocked an eyebrow,

"Between Borneo and Turkey." Alex replied with a grin,

"I knew there was _something_ different about you!" Ben agreed,

"You'd think you'd notice a second head growing, what do they teach you at '6 training nowadays?" Alex teased,

"Same old, you never got '6 training did you." Ben sighed,

"Nope." Alex popped on the 'p', "All I got before my first was with you."

"It wasn't enough." Ben growled, "Still not impressed with them for that."

"I'm still not impressed with them for a lot of things, that is a long way down the list." Alex replied,

"What's at the top?" Ben asked,

"I would reply but we have an audience." Alex pointed to the shocked teens.

"You know each other well?" Lauren managed to get out.

"Unfortunately." Both males replied smiling.

"How so? Did you do any missions together?" James was digging,

"Yes, but that's not why we know each other so well." Ben replied,

"How..." Lauren trailed off,

"May I introduce my ever present, ever annoying and pestering guardian." Alex stated,

"And my ever self preservation lacking Ward." Ben confirmed,

"I am not that bad!" Alex defended himself,

"Al, you are _awful_." Ben disagreed,

"Where are your parents?" Lauren asked,

"Same as yours." Alex shrugged, understanding shone in the cherubs eyes.

"How long?" James blurted,

"JAMES!" Three voices snapped,

"Sorry." He mumbled sufficiently scolded. Zara cleared her throat and they all turned to her,

"OK, we were under the impression that Alex and Ben were the same age, so we put you in a dorm near the adults, but Alex, you can share with one of the boys if you like."

"He can share with me." James offered after being elbowed by Kerry.

"OK, you two are here for at least two weeks so you can get to know each other and act like a family, Alex you can attend Lauren and Rat's lessons, we can give you a timetable later so that you can change if you don't know something they know, or if you know a language fluently already, I gather you are a decent Russian speaker." Zara paused and Alex nodded his head confirming her suspicions. "You will be tested on your knowledge and abilities, we need to be sure our agents are safe, as I am sure you understand. We have a group going out on their final basic training in three days so we want the five teens, if not you Ben as well, to go out and bond over that."

"Gee thanks Zara." James muttered,

"Basic is designed for ten to twelve year olds, if you can't do that at 16 I'd be worried." Alex commented,

"Good point." Lauren agreed as her brother glared,

"Now for the tour, you four can take Alex and I'll take Ben, we can meet up for dinner, go out to bond again, red shirt campus first." Zara announced, they stood,

"Have you seen them yet?" Ben murmured to Alex,

"I'm sure they'll find me soon." Alex commented with a grin,

"Have you had many dealings with MI6 before?" Ben asked Zara as they left,

"Only one really, John Jones used to be MI6 but changed after a mission with us, but aside from that our influx of three to seven year olds grew with a Russian intake three years ago, a few had siblings still alive so the overall population grew but, that dealing with a nameless MI6 agent left us the closest to our limit of children." Zara replied, they left the mission control building and headed over to shouts,

"This is the red shirt play area, it's play time, red shirts are aged three to thirteen, when you turn ten you have the chance to take basic training, our 100 day training programme, its-" Zara was cut off,

"ALEX!" A small red being launched its self at the grinning spy,

"Hey Sergei, how you doing?" He asked shifting the grinning five year old up on his hip,

"Zara! I'm so sorry, I tried to stop-" The navy clad girl ran across gasping, then froze, "Alex?"

"Hey Lissa." Alex smiled at her, holding a hand over Sergei's mouth to stop him speaking,

"What are you doing here?" Lissa asked shocked,

"Long story, involving- Eww! You licked me!" Alex exclaimed looking at the small boy,

"You shouldn't have tried to shut me up! I can now speak English fluently, but I still prefer Russian and I have a red shirt, Liss got through Basic, the horrible training thing we told you about, and everyone is here, I have a family and a bed and clothes, and people love me Alex, they _love_ me, it's not like the orphanage in Russia at all, and I can now speak French as well, though I sometimes get my words muddled up and-"

"Seriosha, you're babbling." Lissa sighed,

"Congrats on the shirt." Alex commented,

"Thanks, your Russian, how long did you spend in Novosibirsk?" Lissa asked, Alex paused,

"My Russian?" He groaned, "I did it again didn't I." He commented to Ben,

"Yep," The older man was grinning like a cat, "And you were right, they did find you."

"Four months, and I was still there this morning." Alex replied to Lissa,

"Oh," She winced, "Jet lag?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." Alex confirmed,

"Alex!" Sergei didn't like being ignored. Alex turned back to him and the babbling commenced once again.

"So, he speaks Russian then." Zara stated to Ben,

"Yeah, fluent for two years now, the last four months he has been in Russia so his English is.. a little rusty to say the least, he'll be back speaking cockney in not time, posh cockney though." Ben added,

"You can get posh cockney?" Rat snorted,

"Yes." Ben smirked watching the small boy talk and Alex only putting in chuckles and nodding when the small boy began to wonder if he was concentrating.

"Why isn't my accent like that? Why can't I speak that fast?" James bemoaned. "I can barely understand it."

"I can, just." Lauren commented trying to make her brother feel better.

"How do they know each other?" Lauren asked, Zara was looking at the trio in shock,

"They were in the influx, Alex isn't... is he?" Zara asked,

"The mystery MI6 agent, yes, how do you think he knows so much about this? He heard the horrors of basic from Lissa and all about life here from both of them," Ben shrugged as a whistle blew,

"Come on you. Let's get you back to school." Alex told Sergei heading towards the building,

"Shit, I need to get to Maths." Lissa gasped, "See you around." She ran off, the four teens and two adults followed the teen and child to the classrooms still in shock.

* * *

Six hours later Zara's car pulled up in the cherub car park and turned the engine off, she glanced across to see Ben dozing next to her, a glance back showed her an exhausted Alex and four teens talking quietly, Lauren and Alex were in a heated debate about the pros and cons of St Petersburg, Kerry, Rat and James were simply discussing the football match they had seen last weekend.

"Hey." Zara shook Ben whose eyes slowly opened,

"Sorry." He yawned, "I'm out of it." He apologised,

"No problem, Alex looks like he's about to drop." Zara commented, Ben glanced back with a wry smile on his face,

"He won't look much better in the morning if he sleeps with James." He murmured, thankfully Alex was too deep in the debate to hear.

"Why?" Zara asked, Ben gestured they should get out the car,

"Alex won't appreciate me telling you but you should know if you are to work with him, Alex doesn't trust easily." Ben murmured,

"He trusts you, I can see that." Zara commented,

"Yeah, I've known him two years and he only fully trusted me recently. He has good reason, but if he flinches or looks like he doesn't want to trust you, don't take it personally." Ben told her,

"I won't, why would he flinch?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to." Ben replied running a hand through his hair, "I need to sleep, been on my feet since five this morning, Al has been since one and his body is telling him its five in the morning."

"I forgot, sorry, I wouldn't have stayed out till ten if I had remembered." Zara gasped, suddenly very guilty,

"It's fine. Don't sweat it." Ben reassured her, he knocked on the window of the car, "Come on, you need to grab your stuff from my room Al." The teens slid out the car conversations not stopping they headed back to the dorms then split, Ben gently guiding Alex to the room,

"James." Zara called, the teen turned," Don't worry if Alex doesn't make it to your room tonight, I think when he sees a bed he'll crash. He's been awake since one and with jet lag he thinks its five in the morning." Zara relayed what Ben had told her,

"Ouch, cool." James winced then jogged after his friends and sister.

* * *

"Alex." Ben leant against the door and crossed his arms glaring at his ward,

"Yes." Alex went to grab his bag,

"When was the last time you slept?"

"This morning." Alex mumbled,

"Slept for longer than three hours." Ben rephrased his question, Alex glared at Ben. He glared right back, a few minutes later Alex's will crumbled,

"I don't know." Alex rubbed his neck, "Two, three weeks." He muttered,

"What happened?" Ben asked, Alex perched on the edge of the bed and shut his eyes,

"Please Ben, not now." The adult hesitated then nodded,

"Bed, now."

"I would, but you're in front of the door."

"You know as well as I what happens on your first night after a mission, you aren't going anywhere." Ben corrected.

* * *

"_Alexander Jonathan Rider, the spy. You know what happens with people who are captured, don't you. You know when the CIA sent you in to infiltrate us I doubt they expected this to happen. You are going to be subjected to the thing you tried your best to prevent. Alex, welcome to the world of child prostitution." His hands were tied above his head and he was stripped, he writhed and screamed his sense of dignity and decorum and pride long gone, two men held him down as a third walked in,_

"_Hello." The man slowly started stripping ignoring all screams and tears, he learned at the blonde teen who had unveiled fear in his eyes, the hands holding his down grew stronger as his struggles grew more and more desperate, it wasn't enough-_

"Alex!" Arms were around him, suffocating him, he struggled, "Alex, its me, Ben." That voice was familiar, slowly his struggles weakened, "Hey, shh." He relaxed as slowly his tears lessened and heart stopped trying to beat its way out of his chest, the hand running through his hair calmed him,

"Sorry." Alex choked out,

"Alexander, what have I always told you. You don't need to apologise, it's not your fault." Slowly Alex sat up hugging his knees to his chest, his top and trousers were soaked with sweat,

"What was it?" Ben asked, the blonde was pale and shivering, "Are you OK?" Alex wasn't normally this bad, slowly Alex nodded, Ben raised an eyebrow but before he could repeat the question Alex was off the bed and rushing to the bathroom, Ben raced after him worried. Alex was kneeling over the toilet throwing up, Ben knelt next to him and held him up, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Sorry." Alex repeated,

"Alex." Ben's voice held a warning, he tried to be grumpy but seeing Alex leaning against the bathtub, white as a sheet, shivering and coated in a thin sheen of sweat his anger crumpled, "Come on, shower, now." Ben started the shower then left Alex to it. Ben was now really worried, something had happened in Russia that had made his usual nightmares worse. He had had them ever since the CIA's last mission. But he had never thrown up before. He glanced at the clock, it was only midnight, if he was lucky the Scott would still be awake, he grabbed his phone and dialled the number,

"Snake, sorry about the time but I'm worried about Alex. Really worried about Cub."

* * *

**That didn't go where I wanted it to but... **

**His testing is next, any ideas on tests? Please Review!**


	3. Grey shirts

**Sorry about the wait, ENJOY!**

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Alex bit back a groan, they were approaching the last check point of the third day of the trek, they had been walking for seven hours and James was complaining. Three days ago they had been chucked out a plane over the Amazon. Due to the terrain and age of the basic training kids they had each group tailed with two army members. SAS to be precise.

The first day it had been two called Falcon and Hawk, both hyper and older versions of Eagle. Alex had looked at them all day, the other four not realising they were being followed, he had at first been wary, then realised they were SAS and their for their safety he had left them alone, once they had gotten over the shock of him being able to see them no matter what they did. Alex smiled as he remembered what had happened at their camp that evening,

_The SAS were gathered in a corner every now and again glancing across at their group, the basic training kids were cooking their tea, or trying to. One group was missing, out of the shadows two SAS men emerged followed by two exhausted ten year olds, the five teens not doing basic applauded, they got two glares in response,_

"_It's not mocking, it's legit! We've been there too!" Rat called, the glares subsided and they went to join their friends, there was a thundering of feet and a body launched himself at Alex,_

"_SNAKE! I caught a Cub!" A hyper SAS man yelled,_

"_YES!" One SAS man punched the air, "I told you it was Cub!" He exclaimed then collected his bets, along with a few others._

"_Cubby! You didn't tell me you were back!" Eagle exclaimed,_

"_Gee, I wonder why bird brain." Alex shot back, "Get off."_

"_Eagle get off." Snake pulled him off the teen then stood behind him arms crossed, Alex glanced across to see Wolf standing on the other side of his gathering with Ben next to him, Eagle still had his wrist and pulled him up,_

"_So, you know what comes next don't you?" Wolf commented, everyone was watching confused, Alex tried to sit back down but Snake caught him around the waist and kept him standing,_

"_So when say things like 'Giving Cub his medical is easier than this' its an insult." Hawk commented, _

"_Yes." Ben grinned at the other SAS man,_

"_You can come with us or we can use the... other method." Snake stated, Alex shuddered but didn't move, _

"_I'm fine." Alex snapped,_

"_That in itself proves you are not, if you were fine the comment would be sarcastic and wouldn't be anything like that because those words bring to attention the thought that you may not be." Snake stated then put and arm around his waist and dragged him into the tent._

"_Well that was easier than normal." Eagle commented cheerfully._

"_That was easier?" Lauren repeated,_

"_Yeah, first time they had to sit on him and drug him." Eagle grinned, "So are you Cub's new friends?"_

"_He's Alex here." Ben reminded his team mate, arguing was heard from the tent,_

"_There we go." Wolf grinned scaring the teens slightly, "How bad is he?"_

"_Not as bad as normal, but this is Alex we are talking about." Ben sighed, Wolf gave Ben a significant look and the spy nodded frowning._

* * *

"_Cub. Arms up." Snake ordered,_

"_No." Alex glared, it wasn't a proper glare though,_

"_Alex. Please." Snake shut his eyes sighing, Alex relaxed slightly and Snake took advantage of that and grabbed the hem of his top and pulled it off,_

"_HEY!" Alex exclaimed,_

"_Should have done it yourself." Snake replied smugly. "Cub." He sighed again seeing the bruising on his torso. Alex stayed still while Snake poked and prodded, his eyes were shut so he couldn't see when the medic stopped moving, but he felt it._

"_Cub." Snake's voice sounded estranged, Alex opened his eyes and saw the medics hands hovering over two twin bruises on his hips, they were strangely shaped bruises but where they had come from was obvious when you saw his back. The were thumb prints, the rest of the hands wrapping around his hips. The medic left for a second and Alex collapsed onto the bunk in the corner head in his hands, when Snake returned he had another with him, the bunk jostled as the other sat next to him, an arm slipped around the teens thin waist and a chin rested itself on the top of his head,_

"_Again?" Ben murmured,_

"_Almost." Alex's voice broke in the middle, slowly a single tear leaked out from under shut eyelids. Snake glanced at the pair anger almost bursting out of him at Ben's words, then left before anything else happened, he stalked into the surrounding woods._

"Hey." Ben nudged him, their two SAS tails were now Ben and Snake, they had been swapped after the first day and had soon realised following them was pointless, as long as they didn't help and contribute they could walk with the group. Not that they needed help, Alex knew how to navigate as well as they did. "You OK?" The older spy checked,

"Just tired." Alex replied brushing off his concern, Snake cocked an eyebrow,

"You're tired after this?" The medic queried,

"No he's tired from lack of sleep, four months in a different country meaning he has to translate everything he wants to say back into English and all this with no break in between missions." Ben answered for Alex,

"I can give you-"

"NO!" Ben and Alex exclaimed cutting him off before he could say 'sleeping pills',

"They are a bad idea." Ben added, "Don't you remember Kazakhstan?" Snake winced,

"Sorry, I'd forgotten, I also assumed that was a one off." The medic apologised,

"It was, we haven't done it since, and besides I had already tried that, sorry I couldn't warn you." Ben grimaced,

"It's cool, all in the past now, we know for the future." Snake shrugged,

"Alex?" Lauren called curiously, they had overheard the conversation but the tree at the back may well have been speaking another language for all they understood from it.

"Yes?" Alex jogged across to them,

"How do you have that much energy?" James moaned,

"SAS training." Alex grinned at him, "What'd you need?"

"We're lost." Lauren admitted, Alex grinned as the two boys protested this, "We are and they won't accept it." She handed him the map, he glanced at it then glanced around the area, the floor dipped away to the north and they had just come up a large incline,

"We're here." Alex told them after examining the map,

"Told you so!" The two girls exclaimed as the boys pouted.

"Shall we stop the blame game and just walk?" Rat suggested grumpy, the two girls grinned at the two unhappy faces, after a few more minutes of mocking and teasing they finally started moving. Four hours later they were clapping as the ten recruits stripped off their blue shirts and tugged on clean grey ones.

"Alex," Lauren called, he looked across and saw four grinning faces, "As you wouldn't give us your file, we know you say it's classified," She stopped the protest before it had started, "Zara couldn't accurately know how good you were, so she thought you would go through the same process as the rest of us." Lauren handed him a clean grey top, Alex burst out laughing,

"And the grey one I have been wearing for the past six days?" Alex queried,

"You have now earnt it." Kerry grinned, Alex thought he'd please the cherubs and put it on, glad it was dark enough so no one could see his scars, he saw Lauren give him a curious glance though.

"Home kiddies!" Kazakov bellowed, a cheer went up causing a few of the SAS men to exchange amused, indulgent, smiles,

"So, what do you think of my kiddies SAS?" Kazakov demanded on the plane,

"We'll, we've only ever had one 'kiddie' at our camp and..." Lynx shrugged and gestured at K unit, "Most of those dealings went through them. But I can say, I see no aspiring Cub's."

"Cub's circumstances were... unique, I doubt they could ever be repeated." Ben commented,

"True, but to get so many children up to that standard, I admit, it's reasonably impressive." Lynx played the diplomat.

"Thank you. What were the circumstance around Cub?" He asked,

"Sorry, can't say." Snake cut in, "OSA." He explained,

"How old was he?" Kazakov wasn't giving up easily,

"When he first came he was 11 but," Eagles next words were covered by coughing, most of the other SAS men had just inhaled whatever they had been drinking or eating in shock,

"He was _what?!_" They exclaimed, almost as one.

"How old did he look?" Eagle snorted, there was a slight chuckle, everyone turned to face Alex,

"You do realise the last time this conversation occurred you did exactly the same as them, if I recall correctly Eagle tripped over his own feet and Wolf dropped his gun on his toe, Snake you just froze." Alex shrugged,

"Meanwhile Fox stood smugly in the corner the 'I knew before you' smile on his face." Wolf growled,

"Well I did!" Ben exclaimed,

"Also, the argument they are about to put forward to you Lynx, is exactly what I told them nearly three years ago, it's nice to know they actually listened." Alex cocked an eyebrow at his unit, they shifted uncomfortably, then resumed the 'how old is Cub' argument with the other SAS men, thankfully all the Cherubs were too fast asleep to hear the conversation, all apart from one. Lauren Adams had woken when the conversation had started, silently she resolved to find out all she could about Alex Rider before the mission was over, he seemed to be an enigma wrapped within a contradiction.

* * *

**Please, Please, review!**


	4. Cub's voluntary Medical -Shock horror!

**Sorry about the wait, power out therefore Internet too. I swear if it stops raining I won't complain about the weather for weeks. I am sick of being flooded.**

**Anyway, ENJOY!**

* * *

Zara was sitting at her desk in shock, Alex's test results had just come through, over the three days before they had gone on basic training he had been tested in everything cherub supplied, Russian, Greek, Italian, fighting, maths, English, all for his age range, out of curiosity as the paper progressed the questions had become gradually harder, to see how he would fare. He had breezed through a 17 year olds questions like they had been designed for seven year olds. And something told Zara he wasn't even trying.

She also had the report from Kazakov on Alex, by now she was almost beyond being surprised, but the praise the Ukrainian had handed out was almost unheard of. There was a knock at the door,

"Enter." She called, in traipsed five teens and an adult, Rat was looking worse for wear having tripped over a root and sprained his ankle, it was still being decided if he would proceed with the mission.

"Hey Zara." Ben smiled at her as they sat,

"Alex, your test results are in and... they are startling to say the least, Alex grimaced,

"Sorry, I missed a lot of school." Alex apologised, Zara blinked shocked,

"You think you did _badly_." She breathed, James took the file off her desk and whistled impressed.

"You passed with flying colours." James told him, the file got passed around,

"Lowest mark was in English." Lauren teased, "Obviously your Russian got in the way." Zara relaxed seeing the light banter between the two, she didn't miss the disgruntled faces of the boys though, they weren't impressed by being shown up by someone nearly three years their junior.

"You need additional training and to do that you are being sent to the SAS camp in Brecon Beacons-" Zara's words were cut off by two shocked gasps, and three strangled ones,

"Yes!" Ben grinned, Alex raised an eyebrow at him,

"You are worse than Wolf, happy to go back to hell on earth." Alex teased,

"What?! One, I get to see you dragged, admittedly probably unconscious, to the infirmary, I get to see those four try and survive and thirdly Falcon owes me from that last poker game." Ben shrugged, "And there's a new batch of recruits." Ben waggled his eyebrows mischievously.

"I hate recruits." Alex muttered,

"They hate you, it's mutual, that and the dislike of Sarge and selection, speaking of which, how on earth did you get this past Sarge?" Ben aimed the last part at Zara,

"Mrs Jones organised it." Zara explained, James, Rat and Kerry looked a little sick at the thought of an SAS camp, Lauren was apprehensive but looked determined, Alex's respect for the teen rocketed.

"You leave in three hours, you'd best be going, I will be accompanying-" Zara was cut off by a impatient knock at the door,

"Ma'am, something has happened." A harassed red shirt carer announced, Zara slipped out the room and returned a few minutes later looking disgruntled,

"I will not be accompanying you, due to issues I need to be here to sort, Ben will look after you fine during your stay I am sure," Zara apologised, she sounded annoyed. They left the room, Lauren grabbed Alex's arm, Rat eyed him distrustfully.

"Come with me." Lauren steered him away, curious glances following them, she led him to her room and sat him on the bed, she paced up and down in front of him.

"Lauren?" Alex queried honestly confused,

"I- You-" Alex was growing wary at her incoherence. "I came from a background the same as you-"

"I'm pretty sure you didn't." Alex was closed off, his voice emotionless.

"I meant that as in; I have a past, you have a past, I don't pretend to understand what you have been through. I get that you don't trust people and I understand that and won't push it, but know that if you ever do feel like talking, I am here. I know that you have nightmares and trouble sleeping but I won't push that either." Lauren paused and Alex felt slightly bad for jumping to conclusions but she had obviously expected it.

"I didn't mean for any of that to come out, the reason I brought you up here was much, much more childish, and stupid, and I can't actually believe I did it." Lauren sighed, Alex smirked,

"What was it?" He asked amused at her being so flustered. She bit her lip before blurting it out.

"What should I pack?" Three minutes later when Alex had stopped laughing, and Lauren had stopped hitting him from laughing, and Alex had stopped laughing from her hopeless hits ending up with them both on the bed in hysterics they sat up and Alex caught the bag Lauren had thrown to him and listed the things she should bring with her,

"I'm sorry, you need to pack as well." Lauren bit her lip guilty, there were only ten minutes left before they were needed.

"Nope, all my stuff is already there, a little dusty, but there." Alex shrugged and winced, Lauren's eyes narrowed,

"What's wrong?" She demanded,

"Just stiff that's all." He brushed it off.

"Either you tell Ben, or I will. And he will tell Snake and all hell will break loose." Lauren threatened,

"Damn, you can give threats." Alex grimaced as they left the room,

"Lauren!" A voice exclaimed,

"Hey Bethany." Lauren turned,

"You going now?" The newcomer asked, Alex recognised her from the day he had spent in Lauren's lessons, he had then been bumped up to Rat's class then James'. After that they had given up and just set him work to do in lessons with Lauren that wasn't the work the other Cherub's were doing. He was too advanced. Especially in languages, so much so that Lauren had insisted Alex give her proper Russian lessons, that had resulted in the two of them being locked in his room on the top floor only Russian being spoken. The teacher had been shocked by Lauren's improvement.

The next day he had done the same with her French, this time helping her with the maths homework. The day before they had gone on basic training most teachers and Zara had asked if he would consider teaching here at some point in the future, Alex had declined claiming he wouldn't be a good teacher. The two areas he had been able to avoid were the fighting and the shooting. He had spent those times alone with Ben, this had led to the inevitable teasing by James and Rat over how bad he must be at fighting and the fact he probably didn't know one end of a gun from the other.

What annoyed them the most was the complete lack of response from the blonde teen.

When they were all in the people carrier, Lauren and Alex in the boot due to being the smallest and most disliked respectively, Lauren had turned to Alex a wicked grin on her face,

"What?" Alex asked cautiously,

"Spanish." Lauren stated, a slow smile filtered onto his face, the first true smile he had shown them since they had met, he had smiled with Ben in private, but the rest had been forced, he saw Ben's knowing smile in the mirror with happiness and pride mixed and stuck out his tongue at the older spy, Lauren watched this exchange amused, the two MI6 spies had a unique relationship, that was obvious Her train of thought was derailed when Alex turned back to her and started talking in fluent, colloquial Spanish.

"You've improved." Ben commented as they gathered around a table in a roadside little chef.

"Yep, spent a week alone with Wolf, even picked up his accent at one point." Alex grinned.

"Am I about to loose the one thing I am better than you at?" Ben teased,

"Benjamin." Alex groaned,

"Fine, the one language I can speak better than you?" Ben amended knowing he hated being told he was good,

"Don't know, you'd have to ask Wolf." Alex shrugged, wincing again, Ben's eyes narrowed, Lauren grinned triumphantly, Alex elbowed her in the ribs, she punched him lightly in the arm, not expecting the painful gasp and the paling of his face,

"Alex." Ben sighed,

"I'll have Snake look at it when we reach BB." Alex promised, that did nothing to help calm Ben's worries, the teen never volunteered for medical treatment unless he was on his deathbed.

"One to ten Cub." Ben demanded,

"When I don't move it one, when I do... three maybe?" Alex gave a one armed shrug,

"That's the arm that was-" Ben sighed realisation dawning,

"Yep." Alex nodded once leaving the others in confusion Slowly the conversation picked back up and they were choosing a language they could all speak in the car, unfortunately that was French, Lauren noticed Alex frown,

"What is it?" She murmured as they clambered back in the car, "Bad language, or memories?"

"Thoughts, thoughts of what might have been." Alex eventually murmured. She was about to continue her questions but Ben caught her eye and shook his head slightly, she nodded back once and left it.

* * *

"'Who dares wins.'" James read as they gathered their luggage, as they swung their rucksacks onto their backs, Alex taking a spare one, he grunted as a fresh wave of pain hit, the weight was gone before any of the teens could notice, Ben swung it onto his back and looked into his wards face,

"We need to go see Sarge." Ben murmured, Alex nodded once and Ben led the way, they reached the hut and entered they knocked on his door and waited,

"Enter." The entered and Fox and Cub stood to attention, Lauren copied, followed by Kerry, Rat then James. The Sargent growled,

"Sir," Alex stated, the glare turned on him,

"Cub, good to have you back in one piece again." He stated,

"Thank you sir. May I ask permission to go and tell K unit we are here Sir? While you... brief the others?" Alex asked, the Sargent glanced at the slight pain lines in the teens face and Ben's desperate look, he interpreted the statement as 'I need to find a medic.'

"Go Cub, don't come back until you have found them all." Sarge barked,

"Thank you sir." He left the room with a reassuring smile at the others, mainly Lauren. Alex vanished and faintly heard the Sargent yelling at him almost exactly what he had heard on his first visit.

"CUB!" Lynx exclaimed, "You're back!" He was F unit's leader, and old friends with Wolf, they had been here the first time Alex had come and had been back up a few times as well.

"Yeah Lynx, you seen Snake?" Alex asked the pain in his shoulder becoming more than an annoyance after the rucksack and manly embrace the SAS man had given him. Standing at attention hadn't helped either. Lynx frowned,

"I think I just saw him head to the hut?" Lynx replied,

"If you see the others can you tell them to go to Sarge?" Cub asked,

"Sure thing." Lynx walked away clapping the teen on the back as he went, Alex gritted his teeth and hurried towards the hut,

"WOLF!" He heard lynx call, Alex smiled, at least they would get to the Sargent, a few minutes later he reached the hut at the same time as Cub,

"I thought I asked Lynx to tell you to go to the Sargent?" Alex sighed, "Snake in there?"

"Yeah, we got the message but when you voluntarily go to Snake after three years of avoiding his medicals, we get a little worried." Wolf explained opening the door,

"Cub!" Snake exclaimed standing up,

"Hey, I have a... problem." Alex stated,

"What kind?" Snake asked confused,

"Cub is voluntarily having a physical." Eagle butted in, Snake's eyes narrowed and saw the way he was holding his left arm carefully,

"Shirt off." The medic stood and helped him wriggled out of the top without causing too much pain and cursed. The blondes shoulder was red and inflamed with nasty bruising all over it.

"That's the one that was shattered wasn't it?" Wolf checked, Alex nodded once. Snake gently probed the area and Alex recoiled, crashing into Wolf who had moved to avoid Eagle who was hyper, Alex landed on the floor with a cry followed by Wolf and Eagle on top of him,

"EAGLE!" Snake and Wolf bellowed, the man in question scrambled up and stood in the corner wringing his hands, Wolf also stood and all three looked at Alex who was grey with pain,

"Cub, can you move?" Snake asked, the blonde tried and winced, slowly Snake and Wolf got him up onto his old cot,

"Go to Sarge, explain what happened and why we are not there." Snake ordered, the two left and the medic finally turned to the pale shaking boy in his care.

* * *

"Where are Cub and Snake?" Fox asked as soon as they were let out of the Sargent's office,

"Long story," Wolf stated glaring at Eagle,

"It was an accident." Eagle muttered,

"Come on, your hut is this way." Wolf stalked off grateful it was late so no one saw them, they reached their cut and dumped their bags,

"Ah, a bed!" Rat exclaimed and launched himself at the cot,

"NO!" The three SAS exclaimed but it was too late, Rat howled in pain as his ribs and ankle collided with the metal bar, Ben scooped the boy up into his arms and headed to the infirmary.

Thirty minutes later Rat was removed from the mission and was being flown back to Cherub on account of having three broken ribs and a fractured ankle.

"We're dropping like flies." Ben muttered, "Go to sleep, we'll give you the full tour in the morning." Ben ordered the teens, they all fell into their beds, albeit a lot more gently than when Rat had done so, and succumbed to the exhaustion that had been plaguing them.

Ben and k unit returned to their cabin to find Snake helping Alex into an oversized top,

"Isn't that mine?" Ben queried,

"Yep. But I don't want Cub to move his arm too much and a larger top is easier." Snake replied, "Now, go to sleep Cub." The medic ordered,

"What happened to Rat?" Alex asked, "What I could hear the howl of pain from here and the helicopter." Alex shrugged then groaned, Snake hit him up the head,

"Moron. If you don't play ball I'll sling it." Snake threatened,

"Rat, the genius, launched himself at his bed and landed on the metal bar, the ankle he sprained in training worsened and he broke three ribs." Wolf grumbled falling into bed, "Night guys."

"Wait, are we going to train them as a four, or as two twos?" Eagle asked, "OW!" A boot had landed on him, "That was unnecessary Cub!" Eagle complained,

"Are you implying I need training?" Cub demanded,

"No, now Cub, stop aggravating that shoulder." Snake snapped, "Goodnight." It was not a statement, it was an order.

* * *

"Ow, fuck that hurt!" James moaned,

"Language." Snake sighed helping James up from the ground, he had fallen off the assault course and landed in the pit of slime,

"Did someone deliberately fill that pit with freezing slime?" He muttered, Ben snorted glancing at Alex,

"Shut up!" Alex hit him in the stomach,

"Shoulder Cub!" Snake scolded, "I still have that sling in my pocket." Alex froze and didn't move, Ben burst out laughing, he stopped suddenly when he was hit on the head, he spun around to see a grinning Lauren,

"You shouldn't laugh at the wounded." She scolded, Alex grinned at her. Ben glared and ruffled Lauren's hair who dodged crashing into Kerry who slipped in the mud and knocked James who fell over his own feet and landed on top of Alex, Eagle seeing what had happened tried to grab his team mate but ended up hitting his shoulder instead.

"Shit Cub!" Ben pulled Lauren and Kerry up as James rolled off the blonde teen who face was back again being white,

"I just can't win can I?" Alex gasped out, "At least three teens are lighter than two SAS men." Alex cocked an eyebrow at Wolf and Eagle,

"Come on." Snake and Ben helped Alex up and brushed him down, "One to ten?"

"Three." Alex said through gritted teeth as the medic probed the shoulder blade, Snake then sighed and pulled out a bundle of cloth which he quickly fashioned into a sling and revealed a bottle of medicine, he slipped the sling on the pale teen and put the drugs back in his pocket ignoring the glare from his patient,

"Don't do anything stupid, you hear me." Snake told him ruffling his hair.

"You trained here." Lauren asked Alex as they walked to the showers for James,

"Yep, three years ago now." Alex confirmed,

"Wow, how did you do?" She asked curious,

"Badly." Alex grinned, there were reaching the mess having left James to shower.

"Cub, if you did badly we all failed." Lynx said amused from behind them,

"Come on, I was _abysmal_." Alex laughed,

"No you weren't." Falcon contradicted clapping Alex on the should,

"FALCON!" Owl and Snake exclaimed, the SAS had just seen the sling and was standing eyes wide,

"Sorry." He knew how bad an injury Cub would have to have to be put in a sling and to still have it there minutes later. Normally he threw slings away within minutes of having them administered.

"It's cool." Alex shrugged one shouldered,

"Hey, isn't that the shoulder blade that was shattered?" Owl asked sitting next to Snake, as F unit's medic he had helped Snake with the units injuries whenever they were stationed together, which was a lot.

"Yep, and the moron hurt it, then didn't tell anyone." Snake glared at Cub who grinned back,

"But he voluntarily went to a medical." Lynx put in, every unit who was in the mess who had worked with K unit fell silent,

"He did what?!" Someone gasped,

"Who?" A recruit asked,

"Cub, _voluntarily_ went to a physical." Owl seemed to be in shock,

"So what, medics can be persuasive." Another recruit called out,

"Yeah, but this is _Cub_. You avoided Snake, Owl, Cougar, Anaconda _and_ Dr. Manning during your training." Wolf commented naming all the units that had been on base when Cub was being trained, there was a low whistle from the recruits, they were now looking at Cub with awe crossed with hatred, they still hadn't gotten over teens being in the SAS, albeit three of them were bordering on useless. It was Cub they didn't like. Sarge bullied them saying 'If Cub could do it you can!' That hadn't instilled a great like of the man. Boy.

"That's some going kid."

* * *

**Please Review! **

**Sorry for pulling Rat out, he always annoyed me. Don't think any of the others will drop, but if the do Lauren will be the one staying, does anyone want James and Kerry to go? I am undecided... **


	5. Yassen didn't kill Ian

**ENJOY!**

* * *

Alex and Ben were standing at the back of the shooting range trying their hardest not to laugh. James and Kerry were shooting, or attempting to. They had hit three bulls eyes each, none of them perfect and out of roughly 100 shots each, Lauren was standing next to them and was not even trying to conceal her laughter.

"Lauren, why don't you try!?" James snapped finally,

"I don't need to learn yet so therefore it is not necessary." Lauren replied,

"Alex?" Kerry asked her voice slightly annoyed, so far the newcomer had done barely anything in their training, mainly due to Snake pulling medical reasons out of thin air. Alex glanced at the medic,

"Snake?" He asked,

"I don't want you to. Not yet, end of the week." Snake replied,

"Go." Wolf ordered, "Fox, Cub, Lauren and Snake, go." They departed and headed to the hut,

"Why aren't you actually shooting?" Lauren asked,

"You're perceptive, you know that?" Ben muttered, over the past ten days Lauren had shone at all the tasks, bar shooting, and shown a talent in noticing things. Like the white lie Snake had told.

"I don't like shooting." Alex admitted,

"Why?" Lauren queried,

"When James and Kerry aren't on the range I'll show you." Alex sighed, despite his best intentions Lauren had grown on him, leading K unit to tease him about having a crush. Alex had tied Eagle to his bed, hidden Wolf's gun cleaning kit and Snakes medical manuals given Ben some of Smithers nausea inducing bourbons. But when Wolf had stormed into the teens hut to demand he return it Alex played the saint and denied any knowledge of the matter. He thought, just to be on the safe side, he would sleep in Rats old bunk that night and return the things later, he did want to live after all.

"So, what's on timetable for now?" Snake asked,

"Shooting, but as Lauren isn't doing that we'll have to start languages early." Ben replied, she grinned and lounged on Alex's bunk,

"So. What today?" She asked,

"How are you with Farsi?" Alex asked stealing Ben's bunk and grinning,

"I have as much knowledge of that language as a five year old would." Lauren replied, "So, when do we start?"

"Why are you so eager to learn new languages?" Snake groaned only being bi lingual himself in English and French.

"I like to be able to survive anywhere, and Alex is a great teacher, my Russian, Spanish, French, Italian and German have improved drastically since he started." Lauren shrugged, "Farsi, teach me." She ordered, Alex grinned and the lesson started.

* * *

"What the hell?" James asked as he walked into K units hut and saw Ben and Snake playing cards then Alex and Lauren sitting cross legged across from each other talking in a foreign language, one he couldn't understand. Alex seemed to be teaching and Lauren was... absorbing what he said, she flashed him a grin then said something hesitantly, then raised an eyebrow at Alex who grinned, he corrected something, James laughed as his sister groaned and muttered something complementarity in Russian, Alex shot back another insult in Spanish, from there the language insults began.

"Shut up!" Wolf bellowed finally having enough,

"Sorry." Both blondes who had been bantering stated, then they paused and repeated the sentiment in English, Ben snorted amused.

"Just when you were going a whole day without any Russian Cub." He teased,

"You are taking a long time to recover from Russian this time." Snake frowned, concerned,

"Fox's already been through that." Alex brushed off their concern and returned to teaching Lauren the finer points of conversational Farsi. It was Swahili next.

"When is he going to be training with us again?" James asked pulling out his Russian textbook,

"When I clear him, why? You doubting his abilities?" Snake asked a warning in his voice, a warning James took no heed to.

"Yes, I _am_ doubting his abilities, all I know is that he has been here before and managed twelve two on the assault course, which must be bull as Wolf can only get twelve thirteen, apparently his hand to hand is so advanced he doesn't _need_ to train, the only words he needs to get out of shooting practice is 'I don't like guns' which must mean he doesn't know what they can do and has probably never shot one before, be holds himself above us simply because he is MI6 unlike us who are 'measly' MI5 he gives us unrequited pointers, where he doesn't even participate in the activity," James rant went on, until eventually Alex's patience was gone, he stood up and brushed past James, by the time he was out the door the rest of the hut was realising James was on the floor unable to move, they had briefly heard a 'screw you James' and then he was gone, Kerry instantly crouched at her boyfriends side and went to help him up,

"What'd he do to me?!" James exclaimed still unable to move, Ben sighed and grabbed one of his arms, Wolf grabbed the other and they hauled him upright, then Ben pushed a few pressure points and caught the teen as his legs buckled,

"Good as new." Ben then turned to the rest of him old unit,

"I haven't seen Cub like that since Wolf stuck his foot in his mouth." Eagle groaned,

"Tell me about it, same plan?" Snake asked,

"Yep." The three others nodded and confirmed,

"Fox, you go get him, lets face it, three years and we still have no _hope_ of finding him unless he wants to be found, we'll go get the rest of the stuff." Wolf ordered,

"Fox," Snake called, "I know its redundant but I feel the need to remind you to be careful with him."

"When am I not?" Ben flashed their medic a smile and jogged off,

"Moron." Lauren hit her brother over the head and left the hut, tailing Ben, she lost him in the woods, then found him again by following voices.

"-Right to," Alex was saying, he had his back to both her and Ben so hadn't been seen yet,

"He didn't, the only basis for that was on the fact he hasn't seen you, we both know if you didn't know what you know you wouldn't be alive today." Ben replied, "Come on, normally you would have laughed at that and resumed whatever you were doing ignoring comments like that, what's wrong?"

"What makes you think something is wrong?" Alex countered, "Aside from that, maybe its an off day, maybe my shoulder hurts."

"You took nearly two weeks to break out of speaking Russian, normally you do it in under a week, a day for each month you spoke it. You have been preoccupied and not concentrating, you slip on on the simplest things and let James rile you up. Normally I would have put it down to the mission, but this is a positive holiday compared to what you normally do, then I would say it would be working with cherubs, but you knew they existed and have already been through that fury. Therefore something must have happened in Russia." Ben concluded,

"You have improved." Alex commented,

"I learnt from the best." Ben inclined his head at Alex, "The senior field agent after all is supposed to teach their junior."

"Don't worry, I still have an awful lot to teach you." Alex laughed lightly, Lauren was shocked, _Alex_ was the senior field agent!

"So what happened?" Ben pressed, Lauren couldn't hear the next words but they obviously meant a lot. Ben's back stiffened but then he moved and wrapped his arms around his ward. Lauren sighed silently then crouched behind the trees giving them a moment. When she heard branches snap as they left she followed. They headed to the combat area and slipped of their jackets, then they took up fighting stances,

"I'll mind you shoulder." Ben promised,

"Thanks, Snake would kill both of us otherwise." Alex grinned, then they sprang. Slowly Lauren felt her jaw drop as they fought, Alex was... Good, really good, within seconds Ben was on the floor, he frowned,

"Again." The elder spy demanded. This fight lasted longer, nearly three minutes. Still Ben lost, the third fight ended up in a draw when they both dropped to the ground exhausted calling a truce. Alex staggered to his feet and offered Ben his hand,

"Enjoy the show?" Alex and Ben called,

"How?!" Lauren gasped out blood rushing to her face,

"Spy." The two spies pointed to themselves,

"No, how did you learnt to fight like that?!" Lauren managed to speak.

"Classified, I'm afraid." Ben replied in Farsi cocking an eyebrow, testing her, the teen frowned deep in thought,

"I'm afraid." Lauren translated what she could slowly as they headed back to her hut, Alex and Ben repeated 'Classified' in Russian, Spanish and French before just telling her the English.

"Oh!" Lauren grinned and repeated the multiple translations to herself a slow smile spreading across her face, "Thanks." She slipped inside, but was unable to shut the door before James and Kerry saw them,

"Alex!" Kerry blurted,

"Kerry." Alex replied coolly, "James." He turned ignoring the cherubs, Ben led him into the hut and someone pulled him into a rough hug,

"He's an arse hole." Wolf stated gruffly letting go and ruffling his hair,

"And that's from someone who knows first hand what an arse hole is." Eagle added with a grin, Snake led the blonde over to his seat at the table and forcefully sat him down.

"Dinner time I believe." The medic pulled off the bed sheets that had been covering the table to reveal fruit, sweets, tea and hot chocolate, all almost unheard of things in BB.

"You didn't have to," Alex exclaimed,

"We know, you need to really begin to accept we don't always do things out of guilt, but because we want to. You were pissed, rightfully so, so we decided to cheer you up. This is the result, now drink up." Snake handed him a mug pleased with the slow smile that was spreading across Alex's face.

* * *

"_You know Alex, they don't actually like you, it's their job." Gregori scorned slowly walking around Alex who was tied to a chair, "Jack was out of obligation, and that comradeship from your SAS buddies," He laughed maliciously, "Well, lets just say, they're being paid well," The knife that was in his hands reflected the light as he flipped it and caught it, suddenly the knife was no longer in his hands it was in Alex-_

"ALEX!" Ben's voice woke him, he sat upright and bolted to the bathroom retching into the loo Ben following behind frowning, gently he supported his ward and rubbed his back in soothing circles. Eventually the teen collapsed against the wall rubbing his side where he had been stabbed and shut his eyes still shaking uncontrollably. His eyes flew open as the world tilted and the floor disappeared,

"Ben, put me down." Alex murmured too weak to really fight,

"Not a chance." The ex SAS man replied grimly, he put Alex down on his bed and then sat opposite him, "You should tell them what you told me." He prompted, Alex opened his eyes again to see three SAS men staring at him.

"Russia was bad." Alex started,

"We gathered from the bruising." Snake commented.

"That was just the start, nothing really, the-"

"Nothing! Cub you almost got fucking _raped_ again." Snake hissed fury rolling off him in waves it was nothing compared to the three other glares he was getting. Wolf and Eagle had guessed, but having it confirmed was another thing all together. Ben was angry at the way Alex dismissed it.

"Yassen got me out." Alex whispered,

"If that wasn't the problem, what was?" Wolf asked detecting a further story,

"Yassen." Alex breathed,

"What about him? We know you are conflicted in your opinion with him, what with your dad, Ian and-" Snake was cut off,

"He didn't kill Ian." The blonde blurted,

"WHAT?" Three voices exclaimed,

"Yassen didn't kill Ian. SCORPIA couldn't risk it, Ian was getting too close and they needed him gone, Ian looked too much like John so they knew there was a personal link, they couldn't risk Yassen bottling out at the last second so they got someone else to do it. Gregori Mann. He's the one who had kidnapped me and stabbed me, the nightmare I just had. When I was released from hospital Yassen found me and demanded to know what had happened. I told him and he went to find Gregori, he killed him but not before Gregori could gloat about killing Ian.

"Yassen had forgotten that everyone thought he had killed Ian and wanted to set the score straight with me. He told me two things, one he didn't kill Ian." Alex frowned yet looked as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders,

"And the second?" Ben prompted,

"Helen made him my god father." At the shocked looks he elaborated. "Yassen knew John worked for MI6 but didn't sell him out, the reverse actually. Yassen kept feeding information to John about SCORPIA and when John died, he fed it to Ian. But he got to know John and Helen, and me I guess, well before they died. Helen asked for Yassen to be a god parent. Some fucking great role model god parents I have. One murdered my parents and tried to off me and the other is a trained assassin." Alex said nothing as he let his unit absorb that information. Ben slipped an arm around him and kissed the top of his head,

"Go to sleep." He murmured.

"No." Alex replied stubbornly exhaustion showing in his voice. Slowly the three other members of K unit fell back to sleep but the two SO spies stayed awake, Ben slowly running his hand through his partners hair until his breathing steadied and the teen fell asleep, Ben smiled and went to lie him down, his plan was scuppered when Alex refused to let go of his top. It was an old reflex that Ben hadn't seen since Alex had first trusted him, Ben woke him from his nightmares made Alex tell him then waited for him to fall asleep, as part of his subconscious didn't want to be left alone he refused to let go of his guardian. Ben had found he didn't mind, as long as Alex felt safe, but that had been in a double bed, not an SAS cot, and Alex had been smaller then.

Sighing the spy wriggled down in the cot making himself as comfortable as possible before shutting his eyes, in no time he too was asleep.

* * *

"I'm not waking them, they're adorable." Eagle murmured eyeing the two spies sleeping on Cub's cot,

"We went through this before breakfast, someone has to wake them, we have breakfast for them so they got half an hour more sleep than the rest of us. Wolf wake them." Snake sighed,

"No. I value my life." Wolf snorted, he caught something out the corner of his eye, "They're awake anyway." Ben was smirking,

"I am, Cub is not." Ben sighed, as one the others in the unit looked at him, "I know, he is asleep and I am not waking him."

"I didn't realise he still did that." Snake said with a fond smile,

"He hasn't for two years, Russia must have really shaken him up, and you know the three places he feels safe, he has two of them here, he's not waking due to the fact he feels safe." Ben sighed,

"True, he feels safe here and with you, and to an extent us, and at home. With you so close and being here he must feel really safe." Snake's smile grew,

"Yet despite feeling safe and therefore having an ability to sleep no human can sleep through a conversation, especially when their pillow is the one talking." Cub grumbled, his voice rough, K unit jumped in shock, Ben just smirked.

"Thought you'd got used to that by now." He commented cocking an eyebrow,

"We had but-"

"Shut up." Alex grumbled and wriggled back down under the sheets, he coughed badly, Snake frowned and felt their youngest members forehead,

"You feeling OK Cub?" The medic asked feeling for his pulse, the frown deepened,

"I'm fine, just tired." The teen pulled his wrist away and turned over, Ben rolled him back and Snake reclaimed the wrist. Alex rolled over leaving his wrist in the medics grasp causing Eagle to chuckle lightly. There was a knock at the door, Wolf opened it glowering,

"Uh... Lauren's not feeling great." James stuttered scared of the unit leader,

"I'll go see her in a minute, you Cub are to stay _exactly_ where you are." Snake warned then left. Alex rolled over then sighed,

"Ben." He complained,

"What?" The spy asked pulling a top over his head,

"You were my pillow." Alex pouted and glared. The spy rolled his eyes and sat on the cot again, Alex grinned and promptly fell back to sleep, the three adults exchanged worried glances,

"He's not feeling well." Wolf muttered, Ben ran his hands through the teens hair worry etched on his face. Alex never went to sleep voluntarily. Ever.

It was so extreme that when they had found out about the nightmares Alex had refused to sleep with them in the building. Eventually Snake had threatened him with sedation and he had slept. Gradually the nightmares had decreased until they were just after stressful events, such as finding out that the man you had spent the past three years believing shot our uncle didn't, and that he was actually his godfather as well, and always after missions. It was one of the many changes that had occurred due to the increase in trust between them. Yet still Ben was trusted the most.

"We're back." Snake announced entering the hut with three teens trailing behind him dejectedly, "Thought we'd get the two sick ones in the same place." He pointed at Ben's cot and Lauren obediently went and lay on it. "Cub."

"Is asleep." Wolf replied pulling his shoes on,

"Bullshit." The medic replied,

"Trust me, we thought the same, he is well and truly asleep." Eagle chuckled,

"Well he is until I move." Ben corrected,

"You shouldn't be his pillow then." Wolf stated, the three other adults looked at him with raised eyebrows, "Fine." Wolf grumbled admitting that he knew that Ben would do anything to help Alex sleep better.

"Breakfast. I'll be back to check on you after that then sporadically during the day." Snake stated, Ben stood eliciting a sigh from Alex,

"Wolf, there's something wrong with the pillows here, they have an annoying habit of moving." He grumbled, Eagle laughed,

"I'll be back soon to make sure you take your meds," Snake stated,

"Aren't they old enough to do that themselves?" Kerry queried,

"Yes but one, they may be asleep, and two; I know Cub." Snake glared at their youngest team member,

"Me, not take my medication!? When have I ever done that?!" Cub exclaimed mock affronted,

"Do you want me to answer chronologically or alphabetically?" Ben smirked,

"Cub, the fact that you haven't tried to escape or tell us that you are fine just goes to show how bad you are feeling, you _need_ to take them, they make you feel better." Snake groaned.

"You sound like Dr Manning." Ben chuckled.

"I normally deal with Cub in less life threatening situations, for example he is normally conscious when I treat him. When Dr Manning does he is usually hanging on by the skin of his teeth, you Fox are no better." Snake glared at the two spies,

"Occupational hazard?" They replied in unison, three glares were all they got in response,

"Breakfast. Go." Alex pointed to the door and they six traipsed out, "Night Lauren."

"Night Alex, soon I will drill you on all the cryptic things you say, but when I no longer feel so shit." Lauren mumbled,

"Sound plan." Alex agreed. They were both asleep in minutes.

* * *

**So... Please review, I swear more will happen soon and they will go on the mission... Promise. Give me any ideas you like they'll be welcomed :D**


	6. Oh, just shoot Cub!

**ENJOY!**

* * *

"No, you go now!" Lauren exclaimed,

"I am not going now! You are, then Kerry, then me!" James shot back. They were at the top of one of the trees on the assault course and arguing about who would be the next to climb down, Alex had already gone. Kerry groaned as the siblings bickered,

"Shut up!" She finally exclaimed,

"NO!" Both stopped in their rants to snap at her, within seconds Kerry had both of them in headlocks, Lauren and James in a moment of sibling agreement flipped her back and tried to repeat the gesture with her, in their desire to outdo the others they forgot they were standing on a small platform at the top of a tree. Lauren hooked her foot around Kerry's ankle and she fell backwards onto James, who was grabbing Lauren. James put his foot back to stop them falling and found nothing but air.

"SHIT!" James exclaimed and they fell,

"OW!" Kerry exclaimed as her belt was caught and they stopped falling, they all grabbed each other in confusion and looked up, above them was a pissed off Alex quickly followed by Ben, Eagle then a glowering Wolf.

"You _idiots_! You could have died! You are lucky Cub was there to catch you, there are no safety nets in that part because we don't believe people are stupid, or petty, enough to get into arguments about climbing down a _fucking_ tree." Snake wasn't there to snap at Wolf for his language, and K unit doubted he would anyway. Wolf's rant continued until he was just glowering at them and the three of them were shaking.

"You." He spun on Lauren,

"Yes sir?" She squeaked, Eagle smirked at that, he had been there as well.

"You have been performing well up to now, but that little stunt up there ruined that opinion. You shouldn't argue about that! You are a team, you need to learn to collaborate." Wolf snapped,

"Yes sir."

"You." Now Wolf turned on James, "I didn't expect that from you despite your abysmal performance here so far, you are a cocky and arrogant little -"

"Language." This time it was Eagle playing mediator.

"And you." Wolf now turned on Kerry,

"Yes sir?"

"You were the only one who showed the tiniest bit of common sense up there. Yet you should have tried to break it up earlier." This was as close to a compliment Kerry was ever going to get.

"Thank you sir."

"When you all arrived, due to your current... career choice, I expected you to be good. I expected you to be _at least_ on par with Cub when he arrived. But I guess I should have known better, Cub after all is a freak of nature." Wolf flashed Ben an amused look. "Now my is for you to be up to par with Cub's first appearance here by the time you leave." Wolf nodded happy he had scolded them enough.

"In short and simple English, he wants you to be on par with an 11 year old who, at that precise moment in time, hated the world." Eagle summarised with a smirk. "Shooting range so we can give you the next ultimatum."

"Ben." Lauren sounded meek, embarrassed and sufficiently told off. Just what Wolf had aimed for.

"Yes?" The spy queried,

"Where is Alex?"

"With Snake." Ben replied,

"Why?!" All three teens demanded,

"Well lets just say holding you three up with a shoulder that was recently shattered isn't the smartest thing he has ever done." Ben replied,

"Nor is it the stupidest." Eagle put in back to being his hyper self.

"... back," They heard Snake's soft medical voice and headed towards it, "OK, I'll bind it so you remember not to use it, I know any sling I give you will be gone in seconds." He sounded affectionately exasperated. A few minutes later they reached a back room and saw the pair inside, Snake was helping Alex slowly pull his top down,

"Hey. Sorry I wasn't faster." Alex smiled slightly at them, the three teens blinked,

"Did you just apologise?" Kerry managed to get out,

"Yep, you get used to it, ignore him." Eagle clapped her on the shoulder then they headed to the range where Wolf was standing,

"Is Alex going to shoot today? Or do medical injuries or personal preference prevent it?" James asked scorn in his tone.

"Oh for fucks sake." Wolf growled, "Cub, shoot." Wolf handed the blonde a gun.

"Why?" Alex asked,

"I am sick and tired of his comments about your inability to fight hand to hand, your inability to shoot or do anything weapon related every single time it comes up." Wolf growled.

"Fine." Alex muttered, he weighed the gun in hand then went through the checks disgusted at the ease at which he could do it. The confidence of the three Cherubs faces was slowly disappearing,

"The way I was taught, or the way you were taught?" Alex asked disgust in his tone,

"To prove a point, you." Ben told him. Alex shut his eyes then looked at the target, a simple bulls eye, no human cut out or human shape in sight. He breathed deeply, composed himself, flicked the safety off, glanced at the target then emptied the clip only moving slightly. Then he took a second clip from Eagle and emptied that one without looking. He then dismantled the gun and dumped it unceremoniously on the table.

"Happy?" He asked Wolf scornfully.

"You moved." Eagle frowned, Ben thought back to the way he had moved and where the bullets would have consequently gone and laughed,

"Thought you'd prove you could aim as well?" Ben checked,

"Thought I'd get two birds with one stone." Alex shrugged as his target was reeled in.

"Shit." James breathed, in the target was a smiley face with a nose, most of the shots had gone through the nose. Eagle tapped the nose and indicated the one shot that had gone a little awry,

"You're slipping." He commented,

"Personally I don't think it's a bad thing to be bad at." Alex shot back,

"That's slipping." Kerry choked out.

"Yep, should have seen him when he came here for selection never missed a shot." Eagle grumbled, "Put me, the unit sharp shooter, to shame." He ruffled Alex's hair and the teen stuck his tongue out in response. James stared for a minute trying to get his head around the fact that a person who stuck their tongue out was able to shoot like that.

"Lauren, you're up." Alex called. The blonde girl paled,

"I've never done this before." She whispered clearly terrified.

"How about you three go with those two and Cub and I teach Lauren?" Ben suggested.

"Sounds like a plan, come on." Snake led them away a few stalls down.

"Now, Lauren, this is a gun." Alex stated with a smirk. She elbowed him.

"Very funny Al." She mock glared.

"I try." He was terrified inside, he had never taught someone how to shoot from scratch, he had taught Snake his version of shooting, how to incapacitate a person without actually killing or hurting them, he had refined Ben's shooting skills to be more '6 based as opposed to SAS but he had never taught anyone from scratch. As he watched Ben go through the different parts of a weapon and how to clean it he couldn't help but think of Malagosto. He had managed to get over all the flashback triggers that had come up, but with the help of his unit. He had tried by himself, but it hadn't worked.

Ben watched Alex out the corner of his eye worried. The teen had paled drastically and looked like he was trying to avoid thinking about something. He noticed Snake watching Alex carefully as well trying to work out what was going on, then medic suddenly stood up straight and looked at Ben,

"Flashback." He mouthed, Ben's eyes widened and he turned back to Alex who was shaking ever so slightly with the effort to stay in the present. Over on the other side of the shooting range the three SAS men were having a quiet debate, a decision was reached and Eagle jogged over,

"Fox, Cub, just remembered Sarge wanted to see you about something, he said it wasn't urgent." Eagle stated, Ben nodded concealing his relief, then he gently led Alex out the shooting range and into then hut. There he sat the teen down on his cot and crouched in front of him,

"Alex, Alex, you there?" Ben asked seeing his gaze was far away, he saw horror, pain and disgust cross the blondes face and quickly moved to the next tactic. He grasped the teens thin wrist,

"Al, can you feel me holding you?" Ben asked, there was a small nod, "That is what is real and now, come on. Come join me in making fun of the shit Cherubs." Slowly his eyes were focussing but he was still pale and shaking. After a little more coaxing on Ben's part Alex's eyes returned to the normal haunted green, he was still pale and the shaking increased,

"I didn't want to." He choked out, tears threatening to spill, Ben wrapped his arms around his charge and slowly calmed him and the words came out slowly and broken at first, then free and flowing, "They made me shoot targets, I was fine with that but then they changed to human cut outs, I couldn't shoot them. That's when I developed the alternative shooting but that just got me told off and punished. I had to try and shoot like they would want me to, and," He broke off as his voice cracked, "And I did. I hated Malagosto from start to finish."

"Is Malagosto where they trained all the assassins?" Ben murmured, he knew the answer but to get his to recover from his PTSD and flashbacks he knew that all triggers had to be covered.

"Yes. And I was one of them. One of their best." The three others slowly filed in and took in the pair hugging on the bed,

"Hey Cub? You OK now?" Snake asked taking in the pale face, slowly Alex shook his head,

"It'll take more than that for me to forget Malagosto, but I doubt I'll have to teach anyone else how to shoot." Alex replied face still buried in Ben's chest.

"The kiddies are showering and changing, we made them run the assault course as payment for fucking up." Wolf stated changing the topic.

"I can't believe they actually did something that stupid." Eagle groaned flopping back in his bed.

"They need a leader, just to finalise decisions, otherwise something like that may happen again." Snake stated still watching the two spies from the corner of his eye, they had slowly moved so Ben was simply sitting next to Cub who was using him as a pillow.

"Not James, he's an arrogant sod, any power given to him would go to him head." Wolf growled, Snake crouched in front of Cub and gently took his wrist, his pulse was a little fast but not as bad as the medic knew it had been.

"Lauren?" Ben suggested,

"No, she's too young and any difference between her and James would lead to friction. She's the youngest so wouldn't garner that much respect despite her being the best, and the issue on top of the course was partly her fault." Alex commented,

"Cub?" Eagle offered,

"NO!" Alex exclaimed, "No."

"OK, no to Cub, that leaves Kerry." Wolf stated,

"She's good, has a level head on her shoulders, she follows the rules a little too much but that can we worked on. Yeah, I think she's a good choice, both listen to her and she's not the oldest but there is no sibling rivalry." Ben agreed, they all looked to Alex who was snuggled happily against Ben's side under his arm,

"Yeah, good choice." He agreed, "What's the time?" He asked through his yawn.

"Nearly 2100. Dinner then we have a night exercise." Eagle read off the timetable,

"Come on Cub." Snake said standing,

"'M not hungry." He mumbled, the three turned to Ben who was laughing silently,

"He said he's not hungry."

"It was coherent." Alex complained,

"May well have been coherent, but it was in Russian." Ben chuckled,

"Don't care what language that was, still not hungry." Alex stated eyes shut,

"And that was French." Ben laughed,

"Safety language." Snake cocked an eyebrow,

"Yeah, Cub? You OK?" Ben asked worried. French was the one language that wasn't associated with any mission or danger and it was the country he should have grown up in, it was the language he often slipped into when he was tired, scared, or having flashbacks as he had earlier, Alex hadn't known until they had told him but he always spoke about his past in French. Before K unit had had elementary French, now they were almost fluent due to the long conversations they had about Cub's past.

"Tired. Flashbacks wear you out, thought I was over PTSD though." He mumbled, still in French,

"No matter when you get over it, we'll always be here." Ben pressed a kiss into his hair then stood pulling the teen with him,

"NO!" Alex complained, Ben lifted his top and frowned, his hips and ribs were still showing under the muscle.

"You need to eat more." Ben scolded.

"Yes mother." Alex muttered flashing a glare at Ben who promptly ruffled his hair grinning when he unconsciously leant into it.

"See, your unconscious is on my side!" Ben crowed triumphantly.

"Fox." Alex stated,

"Yes?" The elder spy was cautious,

"Piss off." Alex tripped him as he walked past, Ben grabbed him as he went down and when the teen was on the floor he started tickling him mercilessly.

"MERCY!" Alex exclaimed as the rest of the room laughed, Wolf just cracking a smile,

"What's the magic word?" Ben teased,

"Please?" Alex tried,

"Nope." Ben grinned wider,

"Abracadabra?" Alex tried again, the tickling stopped. "Arsehole."

"Brat." Ben shot back.

"Now, now children," Snake scolded amused and glad Cub had recovered from the flashbacks. Now all they had was a night exercise and then they could sleep.

* * *

**Please, Please review!**


	7. Leopard - He's a keeper

"Well I'm not fighting him." Eagle snorted,

"I would have no hope." Snake agreed. Wolf groaned.

"LYNX!" He bellowed, L units leader jogged over,

"Hey Wolf, what's up?" Lynx asked his unit appearing beside him.

"Cub, Cub, Cub guess what!" Robin the weapons expert exclaimed bouncing up and down,

"I don't know Robin, what?" Cub smirked,

"You will never guess what happened to Sarge." Robin grinned manically.

"Did someone by any chance sneak into the command hut last night and move all the rooms around?" Alex guessed,

"Then switch all the name plates on the doors?" Lauren contributed,

"Then blue tack all the doors and drawers shut?" James continued,

"And then lock all the keys in the safe so the only way in was through the window?" Kerry finished, by the end of it the two units were gaping at the four teens, Ben was shaking his head,

"Cub, you didn't, did you?" He groaned,

"Never!" The four exclaimed,

"When have I _ever_ pulled a prank of that nature?" Alex continued,

"Six months ago to Crawley." Ben shot back,

"Good point, you helped. And this one was much less explosive, at least I used none of Smithers things." Alex grinned,

"Sarge." Lynx whispered, "So, Cub you back fighting again?"

"Yes. Cleared this morning," Snake confirmed as the blonde had deferred to his opinion.

"Who are you fighting?" Robin asked a vicious glint in his eye.

"They all chickened out and I have been told I shouldn't fight him." Ben sighed, "You want to volunteer?"

"NO!" The four exclaimed.

"Any of you want to volunteer?" Ben cocked an eyebrow,

"Who would they be fighting?" The SAS and Cherubs jumped as the Sargent spoke, the two spies just turned to him,

"Me." Cub shrugged, the Sargent smirked.

"P unit, they're insufferable little-" He glanced at the teens, "They need to be taught they aren't gods of BB. Raccoon will be the one fighting you Cub," P unit waltzed in obviously arrogant, three out of the four anyway, the fourth was at the back glaring at his three other unit members.

"A schoolboy, we have to fight a schoolboy?" One sneered, he was the leader.

"Raccoon, this is who you shall be fighting." Sarge informed him.

"Places." Robin announced clearly enjoying himself, the two trudged onto the mats.

"A schoolboy." Raccoon repeated shaking his head.

"Sir? Can I fight as a schoolboy?" Alex asked a slight grin at the corners of his mouth,

"Yes." K and L units exclaimed.

"Yes, if you must." Sarge sighed secretly enjoying this.

"Oh he must." Lynx grinned. Alex flashed a slight grin at Ben who sighed and nodded. Alex bowed slightly to Raccoon, the other SAS man glanced at Sarge who raised an eyebrow. Before anyone could register what had happened Raccoon was paralysed on the floor. While he had been distracted Alex had swiftly kneed him between the legs and taking advantage of the reflex of curling on on yourself after that injury he hit the same pressure points on Raccoon's neck as he had James' a few days ago. The result was a groaning, still, no longer quite so arrogant, but very pissed off, SAS recruit on the floor.

"Schoolboy trick." Alex stated suppressing a grin.

Laughter broke the silence. All faces turned to see the fourth member of P unit, Leopard, killing himself laughing. The previously glum face was now lit up huge smile reflecting the amusement in his eyes the amusement at the expense of a unit member.

"Whose next?" Robin asked back to bouncing up and down.

"Me." It was Possum of P unit. He stalked forward and, after helping Raccoon up, took his leaders place.

"Start." Wolf ordered. Possum struck, a move Alex easily blocked. The next kick was grabbed by Alex, then his leg twisted and dropped so the second member of P unit was flat on his back within seconds of the previous getting up. He fourth member was still chuckling to himself, he had moved to stand by Eagle and both were holding onto each other, keeping the other up.

"Me now." The last member of P unit who wanted to fight Alex volunteered. Quietly Leopard and Eagle made bets on how long he would last. The fight started, and was over in under a minute.

"Pathetic." Sargent Sanders spat at them. "You couldn't fight a child, you let your arrogance control you..." His rant went on, about their arrogance and how it would get them killed, about their obliviousness, how they were harsh and cruel to everyone they had met. It was obviously a rant the Sargent had wanted to have for a while and resulted in the three members of P unit receiving three weeks of kitchen duty. Then he turned on the last member who was chatting with Eagle and Snake.

"Leopard, isn't it?" Sargent asked.

"Yes sir." He didn't sound scared, but there was no arrogance in his tone. This was duly noted and appreciated.

"I would like a word with you in my office one hour." He stated then pulled Wolf over to the side, the two of them left for the Sargent's office.

"Cub?" Leopard called uncertain.

"Yeah?" He walked over equally unsure, he _had_ just beaten up Leopards unit members.

"Can I have a go, but can you just block? No offence, I need to practice offence and even with those three fights I saw you defence is pretty damn perfect?" Leopard asked. Cub grinned and nodded.

"Can you teach those three while I play with Leo?" Cub asked.

"Leo?" Leopard commented,

"Is that name OK?" Eagle called, "You look like a Leo."

"Leo it is then." Leopard grinned, then swore under his breath. P unit were glaring at him, he was going to get hell when he went back to his hut.

"We'll manage them, you play defence and careful of that shoulder." Ben told Alex who grinned and led Leopard over to a corner. Gradually they began fighting, Alex only doing defence. Wolf jogged back over and pulled Snake to the side.

"What's up?" The Scotsman murmured,

"Sarge gave me a proposition." Wolf informed him in a similar tone.

"What was it?"

"We need a fourth member who is SAS. We know that, Fox and Cub know that, and he gave me an offer." Wolf watched the pair sparring in the corner.

"Who?" Snake asked subdued, the last pairings to their unit had been... unfortunate to say the least.

"Leopard." Wolf stated.

"Well he has ticked all boxes so far, he accepts Cub, he jokes and bets with Eagle, he understands he won't be the best in the room, he talks... Give him the trial run like the rest and if he still wants to stay at the end I say he's in." Snake stated.

"Thanks, I was unsure at first, but seeing him with Cub. After Puma..." Wolf and Snake winced. Puma had been attached to their unit as a possible permanent addition but had been actively against Cub. It had ended up with Puma drugging Cub then beating him up and merciless taunts. In the end he had left the unit with a broken nose, two fractured ribs and a sprained rib. He had been mobbed by those who liked Cub when he taunted him in the mess and the truth about Cub's injuries came out. The Sargent hadn't given any punishment aside from binning Puma.

"I'll check with Eagle but they seemed to get along." Wolf nodded, he noticed Eagle watching the pair fighting and wandered over.

"Leopard can join our unit. Snake and I say that's fine, your call." Wolf told him.

"Yeah, he accepts Cub, that's the main one, we don't want a repeat of Puma. I say he's in." Eagle nodded.

"I'll go tell Sargent." Wolf turned on heel and headed back to the office.

"Leopard. You don't get along with P unit." Sargent Sanders announced flatly.

"No, sir." Leopard replied confused.

"We can transfer you. Is that something you would want?" Sarge asked,

"Yes please, sir." Leopard blurted before his brain caught up. "That would be much appreciated sir." He rephrased.

"K unit have offered you a place. It's that or you can join the new unit when the recruits finish." He stated.

"Sir, am I good enough for K unit, they are the best." Leopard said slowly.

"You had three people saying yes." Sargent told him.

"Fox and Cub sir?" Leopard asked.

"What about them solider?"

"They are part of the unit, what were their votes sir?" Confusion tinged the soldiers voice.

"Can we keep him?" A voice blurted from behind them, Leopard spun around to see K unit plus the two spies. Eagle was the one who had spoken.

"You can keep me if those two agree that I can become part of the unit." Leopard stated nodding at the spies.

"You're in." Alex laughed.

"No chance we'd let you go." Ben confirmed,

"So?" Eagle asked, "Can we keep you?"

"Yes, you can keep me." Leopard fought a grin as Eagle launched himself at the new unit member, "GROUP HUG!" The four others were pulled into a hug, all unable to see the smirk that graced the Sargent's face as they were.

"You have the rest of the day to 'bond'. Dismissed." He barked, they all jumped to attention, saluted, then left.

"How long have you been away from Mozambique?" Alex asked in Swahili,

"Ten years on and off. I miss-" Leopard stopped at the shocked looks from the unit and teens. "What?" He asked.

"What language is that?" Eagle breathed.

"Swahili, but given as it is his mother tongue I doubt he realised he was speaking it." Alex replied as a confused look crossed their newest members face.

"I was speaking Swahili. But that means _you_ can speak Swahili." Leo gaped at Alex.

"Yep, so, why did you leave Mozambique?" Alex repeated, "You left ten years ago, why?"

"University. How did you know it was Mozambique, most would assume Swahili was Tanzania." Leopard was still shocked.

"Your accent, It only comes out when you are tired, like you were after sparring, it is a unique accent, I have only heard it one place, English speakers in Mozambique. And that was concreted by the accent when you speak Swahili, it is a distinctive accent on their dialect." Alex shrugged.

"What else do you speak?" Eagle asked as they headed to his old hut to gather his belongings.

"English, Swahili, German and Spanish." Leopard replied, four adults exchanged glances.

"Not French?" Wolf ventured,

"I can get by, but not well enough." Leopard replied confused, "Why?"

"We'll explain later, lets go get your stuff and try not be killed by the arseholes in your old unit." Eagle grinned clapping Leopard on the back. They entered without knocking.

"Leopard." Raccoon glared, "What are they doing here? This is the unit cabin, not strays of the street." His tone was scornful.

"Well, I am here to move out." Leopard gathered his belongings.

"What?" Raccoon hissed.

"I have been transferred to K unit." Leopard stated matter of factly.

"Yep, he is all ours now. We will treat him like he should be treated." Wolf growled,

"He's not good enough for K unit." Possum laughed.

"Well looks like he is." Snake replied calmly picking up Leopards bag and a few other bits and bobs, Eagle helped then they turned to leave.

"Bye. I hope my replacement is liked better." Leopard left the hut. K unit stayed where they were.

"You do realise you just insulted one of our unit. That means we are all against you. See you in hand to hand." Wolf smiled wolfishly. Then they all left leaving P unit gaping after them.

"So. Where am I?" Leopard asked entering the hut. "It's big in here." He added.

"Yeah, we need room for five, now six, so the made one of the huts bigger so we could all fit. As a result it turned into the communal off time hut with K, L and S units. L won't be near for a few days, until you have settled in and S have been deployed." Wolf dropped on his cot then paused.

"Lets go get you a cot." Eagle grinned, bouncing up and down.

"You guys can either stay, or go, no more training today." Snake told the teens.

"Sleep." The three stated in unison and dashed out the hut.

"Leopard." Wolf called the man back from leaving to head to supplies.

"Yeah?" He asked cautiously.

"Welcome to K unit." Wolf stated.

"You have to put up with me for the month trial before I become a member, but thanks." Leopard smiled slightly.

"You don't smile much. You're not unhappy as such, but you don't smile. I have seen you around a lot and today is the first time I have seen you smile." Alex stated matter of factly.

"And you don't trust much." Leopard shot back, the rooms occupants stiffened hardly relaxing when a slow smile spread over Alex's face.

"He's a keeper. Come on, lets go get you a four poster, queen sized bed, with a feather duvet." Alex frowned as he looked at the supplies list on the back of the door. "Damn, they seem to be out of them, how would a rock hard, military green, small, cold, thin, cot with a paper thick blanket do?"

"I guess I can survive on it." Leopard laugh. Wolf watched as they four others bantered. Yes, Leopard was a keeper.


	8. So the humans who aren't on the planet-

**OK sorry for the wait, ENJOY!**

* * *

"We're off this afternoon. K unit are being deployed so we'd be alone anyway. We're spending one night in London then flying up to York. We have time to pack now." Ben announced entering the teens hut.

"ZARA!" The three Cherubs exclaimed seeing her behind them.

"Hey kids, getting along OK?" She asked smiling tiredly.

"Yeah." Lauren said enthusiastically bouncing off her bed and starting her packing,

"Where are we staying in London, a hotel?" James asked making a face,

"Nope. Ben has offered us his house for the night." Zara replied,

"Oh, has he really." Alex cocked an eyebrow. Ben rolled his eyes.

"I have offered the house I live in for the night. Happy?" He rephrased.

"Better." Alex flashed him a grin as he started packing,

"Huh?" Zara asked.

"Don't bother." The three cherubs told her in unison,

"We have up, the number of cryptic comments that fly between them is obscene." Kerry grumbled.

"Dudes, we have assault course!" Eagle exclaimed bouncing into the hut.

"Finish packing later," Leopard added from behind him then turning and gesturing for Eagle to leave the room first,

"Oh no darling I couldn't, you first." Eagle replied in a girly voice copying the gesture.

"No, no I insist, _you_ first." Leopard gushed.

"Oh for _fucks _sakejust get out the door." Wolf growled, Leopard held out an arm and Eagle looped his arm through it.

"We know when we are not wanted." Leopard choked out feigning a sniff. Wolf buried his head in his hands as the two flounced away. Zara looked on incomprehension on her face.

"You need to sleep." Alex commented off hand to her. She blinked.

"And here I was thinking I had concealed that." She muttered, Ben took her elbow and led her to Alex's cot where he had moved after Leopard joined K unit three weeks ago. She allowed herself to be led then collapsed on the bed and shut her eyes.

Wolf was still in the doorway glaring after the two who had walked out seconds earlier. He now turned that glare on the ones in the hut. Alex walked up to the door with James.

"Ladies first." Wolf smirked, Alex adopted a confused face,

"Then why are you still here?" He asked. The glare deepened and Wolf stormed away muttering about 'bloody child spies, thinking they're better than everyone' and 'moronic smart arse teenagers these days.'

* * *

"I can't believe the words are coming out my mouth but I miss BB." Kerry sighed.

"I know, it grows on you." Lauren agreed.

"OK that's it three hours in a car and you are all crazy." Ben announced.

"You can say that again." Alex agreed. "You mean to tell me you _miss_ the mud, the rain, the gruel masquerading as a nutritious meal, the fatigues, the angry Sargent, the-"

"OK, OK we get the point Alex." Kerry sighed hitting the teen over the head.

"MUM! Kerry's abusing me!" Alex mock complain causing the cars occupants to laugh, Ben's ring tone cut through the comfortable silence a few minutes later, Alex reached forward and slipped it from Ben's pocket,

"Hey Ben's phone." Alex spoke into it, a sheepish look crossed Alex's face, "Well... you see I had it, then it fell off the assault course, then it got hit, kicked, jumped on, trodden on, rained on, thrown across the room... I forgot to charge it." Alex muttered, Ben rolled his eyes.

"Phone Al. Yours not mine." He called, Alex passed his phone to Zara who plugged it in to charge.

"Yes Tom, I am a moron, we have been through this already, why were you so desperate to get hold of me anyway?" Alex said to the person on the other end of the phone. "You did _what?" _Alex gasped then gave a shocked laugh, "Tom that sounds like you're taking my legend at that school! Next thing you know you will be dumping a crane on top of the school... I know, I don't know how they managed to get that one out the multiple rumours... yeah I'm in London... Yeah sure, see you at five. Bye." Alex hung up shaking his head.

"Ben can we-" Alex was cut off.

"Go via Brooklands primary? Already doing so." Ben smiled at Alex in the mirror, "What did he do this time?"

"He flooded the science wing. Three weeks of detention, they can't pin the blame on him so they gave detention to those who made origami boats and floated them into Chemistry from Physics." Alex chuckled, "And you said _I_ was the bad influence, Tom gets in enough trouble on his own."

"A _crane_ on the _school_." James repeated shocked.

"Heh. Long story." Alex grinned.

"You forgot to charge your phone." Ben scolded.

"I know. But he got in contact with me didn't he?!" Alex defended himself.

"Come on, we're here." Ben pulled into a parking place.

"You can go, we'll walk." Alex told him sliding out the car.

"See you at home." Ben pulled away. Alex wandered up to the small brick building merging with the parents there to collect their children, Alex waited watching as the first teachers led their children to the doors,

"UNCLE ALEX!" Two voices exclaimed, seconds later two small bodies hit his legs and arms wrapped around him.

"Hey, surprise." Alex grinned and picked up Alice Harris sitting her on his shoulders and ruffling Tilly's hair. They were Tom's six year old twin sisters, both identical with jet black hair with green eyes always twinkling with mischief. "I am afraid we are walking, Ben dropped me off. We have company for the night though, a woman, two girls and a boy, he comes across as a pain but he's alight." Alex told them, "How have you been?" Alex was them overwhelmed by the stories about painting and learning to write, school trips and learning to read, and lastly the boy in their class called Chad who was a pain and always teased the girls.

All too soon Alex was opening the door to his house and slipping his shoes off,

"Come on, there are some people you have to meet." Alex stated entering the living room where everyone had congregated,

"Uncle BEN!" The twins exclaimed Tilly rushing to him as Alex carefully took Alice off his shoulders,

"Shoes." Alex stated crouching in front of her then sitting her on the sofa, she stuck her legs out obediently a huge grin on her face.

"What's got you so happy?" Alex chuckled as the threw her shoes into the hallway.

"You. You're back." Tilly called from Ben's lap,

"Any presents?" Alice asked hope in her eyes, Alex held up one finger then vanished, he reappeared a few seconds later carrying two small bags which he handed to the twins on the sofa, Alex sat next to Alice who promptly clambered onto his lap and opened her bag.

"Chocolate!" They both exclaimed in unison, then pulled out two oversized tops, Alice turned the best she could and hugged Alex.

"Thank you." Tilly grinned while showing Ben her new top. The door to the house opened and there was a thud as a bag was dropped on the floor, Tom wandered into the living room and picked up Tilly to take her place on the sofa then sat her on top of him.

"Hello, you must be Zara, Lauren, James and Kerry." He smiled at the new comers, "I am the infamous, unbelievably wonderful Tom." Alex laughed,

"Sure you are Tom."

Alice smiled at her brother then her eyes widened,

"Tilly." She called, her twin turned then her eyes widened as well.

"Coin." They demanded in unison to Alex who rolled his eyes then fished a coin out his pocket,

"And here I was thinking you had forgotten." He teased.

"NEVER! Where?" Alice pulled Alex into the hallway, up the stairs and into her bedroom.

"What's going on?" Lauren asked bemused,

"Come on." Ben led them upstairs and into a bedroom with a double bed. Along one wall was a huge map of the world, opposite was another, above the one they were standing at was a plaque saying 'Alex' the other said 'Ben',

"Where?" Tilly asked standing on a chair to examine Russia.

"Novosibirsk." Alex told them pointing to the city on the map, the twins grinned and started scratching away at the map, a few seconds later they jumped off and ran to Ben's map.

"What is it?" Zara asked examining the map.

"Scratch a map, when they first moved in they wanted to know where I had been, this was a gift from Tom, one for me, one for Ben. Whenever I return they get the scratch off the area on the map." Alex explained.

"You've been to all these places?!" Kerry was amazed. Alex nodded,

"What are the red stars?" Lauren asked studying the map carefully.

"Places they have been on holiday with me. Come." He walked into the en suite bathroom and out the other side into another room.

"This is technically Tilly's room, but they share that one mainly. This is their map. Red stars are all of us, Blue the three of them and Gold just Tom." This map was much less scratched but still surprisingly scratched for just holidays.

"Come on, I do believe we have an overdue story time?" Alex asked ushering the twins into his room.

"He looks after them better than I do." Tom sighed. "And I had at least an idea of what parents should do. Mind you, it not as though my parents _cared_ or anything." He added wryly.

"Tom, you should make the most of your parents and family, I am sure they do care they just-" Zara tried but was cut off,

"Ma'am with all due respect, and believe me I _do_ respect you and what you do, you don't understand what it is like. You are a woman with a young son from what I can see who loves her husband and son. You understand how easy it is to loose them due to the fact that, for all intents and purposes, you work in an orphanage, but I come from a different background. My parents _don't_ care." Tom stated flatly, his eyes flashed with anger and an old grief.

"Tom, I'm-" Zara was cut off again by said teen,

"Let me put my... relationship with my parents in a clearer light for you. Seven years ago my parents fell out, a year later they had the twins, Alice and Tilly, a literal last ditch attempt to save their marriage, it didn't work. As soon as she could my mum returned to work leaving them for me to look after, I didn't care they were a better my life, knowing I couldn't do it alone and would hate social services to take them away Alex helped and with Jack's assistance we enrolled them in a nursery and between the three of us we raised them, it was helped I pretty much lived with Alex, Jack and at a push because he was never there, Ian.

"Four years ago it was clear their marriage was never going anywhere and they had a huge fight. Jerry, my older brother, ended up in hospital trying to keep them apart. He left the day after he was discharged to continue his education in Italy. Two and a half years ago I was shot in school and admitted to hospital, I discharged myself without my parents even visiting me, went home told them I was going to Alex's for a while took the twins and left. Two months after that Alex reappeared on the map looking like he'd been to hell and back, which he had because Byrne is a bastard, and then vanished again. He was moving to America but promised we could go out to see them in the first holiday, flights funded by MI6. All this time my parents still hadn't realised I was never at home.

"Two years ago I was in a car with the twins, Emma, Daniel and Daniels older brother. The car went out of control and crashed. Emma and I ended up in comas, mine was three weeks, Emma never woke, she was an orphan as well, one who didn't make it into your school. Still my parents were not aware I was in any danger. When I finally woke it was Ben in my hospital room who had been raising my sisters, not my parents. Daniel and his brother," Tom sighed, "Their family moved away three weeks after that. My parents still weren't divorced. They couldn't spend enough time in the same room together without trying to kill each other. I was still in Alex's house, now with Ben.

"Then I find that Alex, my idiotic best friend had gone and gotten himself kidnapped, my parents who were both so fond of him didn't give a damn. I went to grab the last of my things planning to stay with Ben until Alex was back. The house was empty because neither of my parents wanted to be the 'bad' parent who chucked the other out so had both left the house. Each believed I was with the other, and I was in no hurry to correct this. Unfortunately when I went to get the last of my stuff my dad was dong the same, he was drunk. I ended up in hospital again. Ben picked me up and discharged me. Then, thank god, Alex was found and came back. I have never seen those girls so happy, and Ben. The bad side was the state he was in.

"A year and a half ago my dad was denied the right to look after me due to violence and three days later my mum emancipated me and the girls. Jerry was too engrossed in his work and life and I didn't want to ruin it so, as an emancipated twelve year old Ben went the extra mile and adopted me twelve months after he had Alex, fully understanding that I came with two extras." Tom paused as Alice ran into the room, he gently picked up his sister and sat her on his lap,

"Can you go back to Alex, I'll be there soon." He asked her gently, she pouted but nodded, Tom kissed the top of her head and ruffled her hair. She ran out and Tom smiled hearing shrieks of laughter. "I declined Ben's offer at first saying he didn't understand what he was doing."

"When I really did you moron." Ben sighed fondly exasperated,

"And," Tom glared at his guardian, "For that I will ever be in his debt. Mrs Asker, you may tell me to make the most of my family, and I _do_ believe me, in all ways I have two little sisters and six brothers due to the fact K unit were taken with me, but I will never make the most of my parents, I tried that and it resulted in me in the hospital and a truly broken family.

"As I said before ma'am, I do respect you and your career just don't tell me I'm wrong when I make comments like I did about my parents not caring, because I can safely say my biological ones don't, don't say you understand because despite what you think you don't understand me or Alex, me because I have parents who don't care and you were a cherub, therefore an orphan, and you don't understand Alex, he may be and orphan like yourself but at least you _remember _your parents, at least your only living family member didn't spend his entire life lying and inadvertently training you. Sorry, but it's true, and in case you hadn't guessed I am sick and tired of people telling me they 'understand'." Tom finished. Zara sat on the bed in shock.

"Family isn't always blood, it's the people in your life who want you in theirs, the ones who accept you for who you are, the ones who would do anything to see you smile and love you no matter what." She murmured,

"Precisely, though I think I read that on a fortune cookie once." Tom sat back and grinned, Ben laughed lightly.

"Probably, it was on the card I was given when I left Cherub." Zara smiled fondly.

"TOM!" There was a shout, they all turned to the doorway and saw Alex with a huge grin on his face,

"Thomas, your sisters are going to be the death of me." He teased.

"HEY!" Tilly exclaimed from her perch on his back,

"Alex is going to make us tea!" Alice announced jumping into Ben's arms.

"Is he now?" Zara smirked,

"Well I'm not, and Tom can't." Ben stated matter of factly.

"Ah Benjamin, that statement implies you can." Alex teased.

"I can!" Ben huffed,

"When it comes out a military ration pack." Alex grinned, "And tastes awful."

"You are the only human being on the planet who can make the stuff out of those packs taste nice." Ben complained heading to the kitchen the others following like lost sheep,

"So the humans who aren't on the planet can as well?" Tom cocked an eyebrow.

"You've been spending too much time around Alex." Ben groaned.

"Yep. Only ten years, give or take." Tom nodded.

"And my sanity is already destroyed." Alex announced from where he had sat Alice on the side and was handing her food from the fridge.

"What is for tea?" Zara asked,

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Pasta!" Kerry and James exclaimed.

"Pasta." Lauren agreed.

"OK, what's _on_ the pasta?" Alex asked turning around.

"Don't care." James shrugged. Alex looked at the group congregated in the kitchen.

"Vegetarian." Alex pointed at Lauren, "Nuts." He pointed at the twins, "And Tom doesn't like green pepper."

"How did you know I was veggie?" Lauren demanded.

"You never ate food with meat in at camp, not that that was really meat as such, but the principal was there." Alex shrugged.

"Uncle Alex." Tilly said slowly.

"Yes..." Alex grinned.

"You know you just returned." Alice stated.

"Yes..."

"You remember what you promised us before you left?" Tilly asked, Ben had a smile growing.

"And here I was thinking you had forgotten!" Alex teased,

"No, does that mean we can have them?" Alice grinned.

"Well... I suppose if I _must_." Alex rolled his eyes.

"YAY!" Alex picked up Alice, "So, pancakes for tea or breakfast?"

"Al, seriously, _both_." Tom snorted. The three Harris' looked at him imploringly.

"Fine. Pasta, pancakes with no green peppers, nuts or meat." Alex laughed, "You want to help?" He asked Alice who nodded, "Let's go." He shooed them out the room.

"He puts me to shame every time." Tom bemoaned, "And your my sisters!"

"Hows school?" Ben asked running his hands through Tilly's hair, she had decided that since Ben was a novelty his lap was a better seat that Toms.

"Hell. Thanks to Alex and me getting my arse in gear I am getting straight A*'s across the board but taking fourteen GCSE's was never going to be fun." Tom sighed.

"Fourteen." Lauren breathed.

"Yeah, four early then the usual ten." He shrugged, "I'm enjoying it, French is the easiest thanks to Alex having it as a bloody safe language, also living with two multilingual people helps."

"Safe language?" Lauren asked, "K unit said the same."

"Long story." Ben skirted the answer. The conversation flowed through school to cherub to talents, never once touching on the cherubs orphan status or the fact Tom didn't live with his parents and the conversation that had occurred upstairs.

"Where are we sleeping?" Zara queried, "We should get our stuff out the car before it gets dark."

"Come on." They grabbed their bags. "This is my room," Ben pointed at the door, "That's Alex's." He pointed at the next door, "That's Alice's room, but Tilly shares it at the moment, this is you Zara. Tilly's actual room." She threw her bags on the bed, "That's Toms." He indicated another door by the stairs, "And a bathroom." A another door, then they headed up another set of stairs, "James and Lauren can share or Lauren and Kerry, two rooms of twin beds." Ben offered,

"I'll share with Lauren, James snores I recall. I heard them through the walls of my last mission with him." Kerry announced.

"HEY!" James sounded affronted.

"It's true." Lauren smirked and threw her bags on the bed.

"One bathroom up here, Zara you have a shared en suite. There's a general bathroom on the first floor and two on the ground, that one doesn't have a shower or bath, towels are on the beds. Make yourself at home."

They moved to their rooms but a few minutes later Alex yelled that dinner was ready. There was a stampede to the kitchen. On the table was a Caesar salad and pasta with Arrabbiata sauce.

"There are pancakes for pudding." Alex promised.

"Damn I missed you Alex." Tom grinned, "Or is it missed your cooking?"

"The chicken is separate for Lauren. Enjoy." Alex poured dressing on his salad then added croutons, the twins tucked into their pasta hungrily.

"There were someone else's clothes in my room, and not Tilly's clothes, a woman's." Zara stated,

"Oh, Tamara's, I thought they were all in your room now Ben." Alex told her.

"She came to stay briefly while you were away, they may be left from that time as Alice and Tilly didn't want her getting lonely so made her stay in the adjoining room." Tom told them.

"We missed her. She didn't say she was in England." Ben pouted.

"Yeah, something about a mission in the UK, CIA sent her." Tom shrugged.

"Whose house is this, it's huge, you said it wasn't yours Ben. Is it this Tamara's?" Lauren asked,

"Nope. Alex's." Ben nodded to his ward.

"It was my parent's then my uncles, now mine. I don't need the space, but Tom needed somewhere to stay so I kept it, it was let out but I got it back in such a state once and I don't have the heart to sell it." Alex shrugged. "Too many memories."

"Who is the red haired woman in the photos? Your sister or mum?" James asked.

"Guardian." Alex didn't say any more on the matter and in a rare act of sensitivity James left the topic alone. It was helped along by Kerry kicking him.

"This is delicious, can you cook anything else?" Zara asked, not a great cook herself.

"Anything and everything. He taught me to cook, but alas I am not as good as him yet." Tom grinned.

"Same here, he taught me. As I said, he manages to make military rations taste nice." Ben smirked, "Still don't know how." There was silence until the meal was finished,

"Damn Alex. Can I keep you?" James sat back hands on his stomach.

"Nope, but you can do the dishes." Alex flashed him a grin, James made a face. "Go, I'll do them." He stood and started loading the dishwasher then washed the pans, the group migrated to the living room, the teens pulling out homework grumpily.

When Alex emerged a few minutes later he ushered the twins upstairs with the words, 'Bath and bed.'

* * *

**Sorry for the wait! Please Review!**


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